There are many more automotive suppliers who could be coming to Ontario, according to the province's minister of economic development, Vic Fedeli. PHOTO courtesy Stellantis.
As impressive as the $16 billion in new automaker investments in Ontario over the past two years have been, the province’s minister of economic development, Vic Fedeli, is optimistic they represent only the beginning. If he’s right, it will go a long way towards ensuring the long-term viability of the province’s job shops serving the automotive sector.
Fedeli told the Windsor Star that the transformation of the automotive industry towards producing electric vehicles is still in its infancy and Ontario has a large part to play. Ontario’s next priorities are building out the critical minerals mining and processing sectors required for electric vehicle batteries, landing a second battery plant and bring as much of the battery supply chain to the province as possible.
“We’ve seen OEMs make investments and the battery plant and cathodes make an investment, but there a lot more suppliers in the pipeline we hope to convert to investments,” Fedeli said in the interview with the Windsor Star. “We have yet to see the full power of Ontario’s (critical minerals) resources unleashed on the automotive sector.”
At the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association conference in Windsor this fall, Fedeli mentioned that Ontario was in discussions with six companies on battery plants and now has confirmed those talks are ongoing and there will be more concrete developments to announce during the year.
Last summer Stellantis and LG Energy Solution committed to invest more than $5 billion CAD to establish automotive battery operations in Windsor, Ontario, with support from the municipal, provincial and federal levels of the Canadian government. The manufacturing facility is targeted to have an annual production capacity in excess of 45 gigawatt hours (GWh) and will create an estimated 2,500 new jobs in Windsor and the surrounding areas. Production operations are planned to launch in the first quarter of 2024. Suppliers feeding the battery plant could add another $5 billion, Fedeli believes.
Invest WindsorEssex representatives are optimistic about being able to entice several more new plants to the region.
