EVs Lead Canada to $11.7 Billion Worth of Automotive Projects Under Construction

Canada, much like its southern neighbor, is home to a wide variety of industrial activity. According to Statistics Canada, the federal government's statistics arm, the country's total manufacturing sales in April increased 1.1% month-over-month to C$70.8 billion (US$51.6 billion), with sales of motor vehicles seeing the greatest increase. Industrial Info is tracking US$11.7 billion worth of automotive projects under construction in Canada, most of which is attributed to electric vehicle (EV)-related projects.

The Statistics Canada data show the country's sales of motor vehicles in April increased 5.6% to C$4.8 billion (US$3.5 billion), following a 7.9% decline in March, while sales of motor vehicle parts jumped 7.7%. "Despite the ongoing retooling at some auto assembly plants, certain auto manufacturers sold more motor vehicles in April," the agency said.

Statistics Canada said the total jump in April manufacturing sales “was mainly attributable" to growth in the transportation equipment subsector (+4.1%), which, in addition to vehicle and related part manufacturing, includes rail, aerospace and shipbuilding.

Canada's automotive projects under construction include an effort from Stellantis (NYSE:STLA) (Amsterdam, Netherlands) aimed at upgrading/retooling an existing 4.4 million-square-foot assembly plant in Windsor, Ontario, to allow for plug-in hybrid and EV production. The US$1.5 billion project is expected to wrap up this year.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can click here for the project report.

The remaining investment value of Canada's automotive projects under construction is attributed to the production of EV batteries, a precursor of EV assembly. The battery projects are buoyed by the construction of Volkswagen AG's (Wolfsburg, Germany) C$7 billion (US$5 billion) battery cell-manufacturing plant in Saint Thomas, Ontario, the automaker's first battery plant in North America. The plant will be operated by PowerCo SE, Volkswagen's battery company. The project, which recently kicked off, entails building a 3 million-square-foot facility with an annual production capacity of up to 90 gigawatt-hours.

The federal government last year agreed to provide Volkswagen with up to C$13 billion (US$9.7 billion) in subsidies to build the Saint Thomas plant.

“The cell factory with a projected start of production in 2027 is part of a larger plan that Volkswagen and PowerCo agreed upon with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government in August of 2022," Volkswagen said in a press release late last year. “The Memorandum of Understanding signed at the time focuses on battery value creation and raw material security in order to help promote e-mobility in the country."

Click here to read more information on the project.

Meanwhile, another Stellantis project is designed to support production of three internal combustion engine models: a US$1.1 billion retool at its assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario, which is expected to enhance production of the automaker's Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger models as well as additional models. The project will be performed in multiple phases, and Industrial Info is tracking a completion date in mid-2026. Subscribers can read detailed reports on the Brampton project.

Among the projects related to the production of vehicle parts is Vuteq Corporation's (Toyota City, Japan) US$40 million expansion of its plant in Woodstock, Ontario, which entails constructing an 82,000-square-foot building addition and installing four new injection molding machines to increase the company's manufacturing capacity of interior trim and windshields, among other components. Click here to read more information on the project, which is expected to wrap up around the end of the year.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project Database can click here for a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and click here for a full list of related plant profiles.

Click here for a full list of automotive projects under construction in Canada, and Industrial Info is tracking three projects, worth more than US$1 billion, with a completion date in June.