The Canadian government will grant subsidies of up to 13.2 billion Canadian dollars (about 9.8 billion dollars) over ten years to the German car manufacturer Volkswagen for the construction of its first electric battery plant outside of Europe, in Canada.
“The investment will depend on the number of batteries that are manufactured and will be between 8,000 and 13,200 million (Canadian) dollars,” the Prime Minister reported this Friday. Justin Trudeauin a press conference.
This factory will create “3,000 direct jobs and up to 30,000 indirect ones,” Trudeau said, referring to the fact as a “historic breakthrough.”
Volkswagen announced in mid-March its intention to build this plant in Saint-Thomas, Ontario, thus becoming the first new manufacturer to settle in Canada in the last 35 years.
The start of construction is scheduled for next year.
This factory will have an area equivalent to more than 378 American football fields, making it the largest manufacturing plant in the country.
It is scheduled to open in 2027 and will produce batteries “for up to one million electric vehicles a year,” according to a note from the prime minister’s office.
The Saint-Thomas plant will be a national benchmark in the electric vehicle supply chain,” Trudeau added.
Volkswagen is investing “7 billion dollars” in this plant, “the largest investment in the electric vehicle sector in Canadian history,” he said.
