Yahoo Finance ‘Tip of the iceberg’: General Motors eyes more EV battery investment in Quebec
General Motors’ (GM) $600 million joint venture to build a battery materials facility in Quebec is the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to the Detroit automaker’s plans in Canada.
Speaking at the EV Innovation & Technology Conference 2024 event in Toronto on Tuesday, Sarah Goldfeder, director of government relations and corporate affairs for General Motors Canada said, “My dream is that every vehicle that General Motors makes has a piece of Canada in it.”
General Motors and South Korean steel-maker POSCO announced a plan in 2022 to build the new chemical battery materials facility in Becancour, Que. The companies expect to invest even more than $600 million in the project. Last May, they said construction is underway, with initial production expected in the first half of 2025. Canada’s federal government and the province of Quebec will each provide about $150 million in financial assistance.
“We’ve got the investment in Quebec. To me, that’s the tip of the iceberg,” Goldfeder said in a panel discussion about new production hubs. “I think what the company wants to see is the potential in Becancour for that project, which is now a CAM facility, to be built out into an entire ecosystem, from extraction, all the way through to processing," added Goldfeder, using the acronym for cathode active material.
Goldfeder did not specify when such a decision could be made, or how GM would assess the Becancour facility’s potential for expansion. She did say GM’s EV-oriented presence in Canada hinges on “what’s available to us.” Last year, the company announced a plan to produce more than 400,000 EV drive units per year in St. Catharines, Ont. GM’s Ingersoll, Ont. plant currently builds electric delivery vans.
"The question then becomes, how can Canada step up to the plate," Goldfeder asked. "There are questions there that need to be answered by the federal government, by provincial governments, by utilities, by the workforce, by the universities, and by us, the companies. But it has to be a joint effort."
GM aims to produce one million electric vehicles in North America by 2025. On Thursday, the company named former Tesla (TSLA) executive Kurt Kelty to the newly created role of vice president of its battery unit.
Earlier this week, Canada topped BloombergNEF’s global lithium-ion battery supply chain ranking, overtaking China for the first time. The 30-nation analysis looked at future potential, not current production.
At the same time, a report from RBC published on Tuesday found investment in Canadian climate and cleantech needs to rise from $22 billion per year today, to $60 billion a year for the rest of the decade, for the economy to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli touted his province’s prowess as a battery-making powerhouse at Wednesday's conference. Over the past year, Ontario has lured multi-billion dollar investments from companies like Volkswagen (VWAGY), Stellantis (STLA) and LG.
“Last year, Ontario alone created more manufacturing jobs than all 50 U.S. states combined. That’s the power that we are pumping out of Ontario,” he said. “This is going to be a very pivotal year.”
Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jefflagerquist.
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