LOYALIST TOWNSHIP, ONTARIO, CANADA — The plant was expected to produce batteries for a million electric vehicles a year. Once up and running, it was supposed to create hundreds of permanent jobs in a small southeastern Ontario municipality.
It was, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the time,"big news" that Belgium-based Umicore chose Loyalist Township for its battery component production facility — evidence, the federal and provincial governments said, of success in the quest to make Canada a global electric-vehicle production hotspot.
"It was a very concerning announcement for the entire community," Jim Hegadorn said in an interview at the local town hall, after Umicore said in late July it would delay spending on the construction of its facility. In a recent statement, Umicore said customers' demand projections for its battery materials"have steeply declined recently," and the future of the plant will be informed by a comprehensive review of company operations in Asia, Europe and North America.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has regularly touted his province's plan to create an"end-to-end" EV supply chain that also prioritizes mining critical minerals crucial to battery production. The production of zero-emission vehicles, tied to a $1.8-billion investment at the Oakville plant, could net the company some $590 million in subsidies.
A study published by J.D. Power, a company tracking consumer data, reported in May that significantly fewer Canadians said they were considering buying an electric vehicle.
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