The president of the Automotive Parts Manufactures Association is calling a $5-billion electric vehicle battery plant "a walk-off grand slam" for Windsor.
Flavio Volpe says for context, this is twice the size of an assembly plant.
"We've been chasing assembly plants unsuccessfully since Toyota opened Woodstock in 2007," he says. "This is, the minister called it a home run, this is beyond that. This is a walk-off grand slam and it's very important for Windsor."
LG Energy Solution and Stellantis announced the joint venture Wednesday to produce leading edge lithium-ion battery cells and modules to meet a significant portion of Stellantis’ vehicle production requirements in North America.
The plant aims to have an annual production capacity of more than 45 gigawatt hours but Volpe is not sure people understand how huge that is.
"I think this is the biggest battery plant in North America, never mind its the biggest investment in Canada, this will be the biggest battery plant in North America," he says. "Bigger than the announcement in Kentucky, Tennessee, Nevada, bigger than the ones in Ohio and Michigan."
Volpe says having the biggest battery plant in North America matters when you're the next battery company looking around for places to invest.
"That investment, that $5-billion, will draw a whole bunch of infrastructure and a whole bunch of suppliers that will make that initial investment to supply LG and Stellantis, but it will also be there for the next one. So the first one is so important and for it to be this size is so incredible," he adds.
Plant construction activities at the 220-acre site on Twins Oaks Drive near Banwell Road, just off the EC Row Expressway, are scheduled to begin later this year. Production operations are expected to launch in the first quarter of 2024.
The facility will be operational by 2025, employing 2,500 people.
With files from Rob Hindi