Sources say Volkswagen’s new Ontario plant will dwarf previous automaker investments – by Tonda MacCharles and Robert Benzie (Toronto Star – April 20, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

Ottawa and Queen’s Park hope the auto giant’s new manufacturing complex will be the lynchpin of a new “green” supply chain in Canada.

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford hit the road Friday to finally unveil plans for the new multi-billion dollar Volkswagen electric vehicle “gigafactory” in St. Thomas. Ottawa and Queen’s Park hope the German auto giant’s massive new manufacturing complex will be the lynchpin of a new “green” supply chain in Canada.

Volkswagen announced last month it chose southwestern Ontario over U.S states like Oklahoma that were vying for the global automakers’ first battery plant outside Europe. The “gigafactory” will sprawl over hundreds of acres near London, Ont., and produce hundreds of thousands of electric car batteries a year to generate “gigawatts” of battery power for the burgeoning EV market in North America.

Sources close to the negotiations between Ottawa, Queen’s Park and the German auto giant say the Volkswagen deal will be larger than the Stellantis expansions in Brampton and Windsor that Trudeau and Ford announced together last year.

But they are equally tightlipped about details of just how much — in tax credits, capital expenditure support or other incentive measures — each level of government had to put on the table to lure Volkswagen here.

For the rest of this article: https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2023/04/19/sources-say-volkswagens-new-ontario-plant-will-dwarf-previous-automaker-investments.html