Northern Ontario has become an integral part of the auto supply chain, says Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli. The industry, mostly centralized in southern Ontario, is moving north thanks to the increase in production of electric cars.
The provincial government released the next phase of its auto strategy Wednesday that is expected to secure production mandates for hybrid and electric vehicles, to create a domestic battery ecosystem, and position Ontario as a North American automotive innovation hub.
One early December morning in 2016, Joe Biden got up, inquired into President Barack Obama’s health, and set off for a snowy Ottawa.
The lame duck vice-president was feted at a ritzy state dinner in the capital, where he called on Justin Trudeau to be a defender of the international “rules of the road” during the period of deep uncertainty he predicted would follow Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president of the United States.
“We’re more like family even than allies. I mean that sincerely,” he said – repeatedly.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford has unveiled an electric vehicle strategy that aims to have the province produce 400,000 electric cars and trucks a year by 2030 and attract two or three battery plants.
The plan, released on Wednesday at a campaign-style event at auto parts maker Linamar in Guelph, Ont., about 100 kilometres west of Toronto, says the province will partner with the industry to prepare it to make the “car of the future” and “establish and support a battery chain ecosystem” using the mineral wealth in Northern Ontario.
It did not take long for COP26 to turn into a farce this week with UN Secretary General António Guterres pleading with the gathered highnesses and excellencies to declare enough is enough.
Socialist party ex-PM of Portugal, Guterres delivered a rousing 10-minute speech at the opening ceremony saying (around the 0:45 mark) “we face a stark choice – either we stop it or it stops us”:
The Ford government is reaching out to top American politicians in the hopes of thwarting the latest protectionist measure coming from Washington. A proposed tax rebate on electric cars currently before the U.S. Congress could have a devastating impact on the future of Ontario’s auto industry.
The rebate, part of the Build Back Better budget bill, would offer American consumers a rebate of up to $12,500 for purchasing an electric vehicle but only if the car is assembled in the United States with 50% American parts and an American made battery.
Four out of the five automakers in Canada have announced plans to build battery manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
Ever since U.S. President Joe Biden announced in March that his administration would invest US$174 billion “to win” the electric vehicle market, Canadian industry officials have been wondering how that influx of money would affect this country’s auto sector.
Batteries are expected to supplant the engine as the central and most valuable component in a vehicle, and so industry groups are keen to see at least one major battery cell manufacturing plant built in Canada to ensure the industry remains vibrant in the future.
WASHINGTON/OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada said on Friday that U.S. proposals to create new electric vehicle tax credits for American-built vehicles could harm the North American auto industry and fall foul of trade agreements, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
Separately, a Canadian government source expressed confidence a solution would eventually be reached but said Ottawa might have to launch a challenge through the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade deal.
As supply chains remain in distress across the globe, automakers are spending billions to move production of battery cells to their home countries to meet what’s expected to be rapidly growing demand for electric vehicles over the next decade.
Automakers from Detroit to Japan plan to simplify supply chains to lower costs, ease logistics and avoid massive disruptions. A global shortage of semiconductor chips has highlighted the industry’s reliance on overseas manufacturers for the parts.
The world’s top automakers face disruption from tight global supplies of magnesium, as China’s power crisis threatens availability of the key component used to make aluminum, Germany’s association of metals producers WVM said on Tuesday.
European magnesium stocks have been particularly affected by the lack of supplies from China, which has a near monopoly on the magnesium market, the association said in a letter to the German government. The worst part of this shortage is about to come, it noted.
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Joe Biden’s pledge to support all things made in America could end up costing thousands of Canadian jobs in the auto industry. Budget legislation moving through the American Congress contains tax breaks for electric cars that could pretty much rule out future investments by automakers in Canada and cost tens of thousands of jobs.
The legislation would increase the incentive for buying an electric vehicle to $12,500 but only if the vehicle, and the battery that is in the vehicle, are both made in the United States.
Electric vehicle giant Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has inked a multi-year nickel supply deal with New Caledonia’s Prony Resources, which guarantees the US carmaker about 42,000 tonnes of the metal needed to produce the batteries that power its EVs.
Prony, which bought the loss-making nickel and cobalt operations in the French territory from Vale (NYSE: VALE) earlier this year, said it’s targeting production of 44,000 tonnes of nickel by 2024. That’s about double the expected 2021 output.
Associated Press – General Motors plans to cash in as the world switches from combustion engines to battery power, promising to double its annual revenue by 2030 with an array of new electric vehicles, profitable gas-powered cars and trucks, and services such as an electronic driving system that can handle most tasks on the road.
In announcements Wednesday ahead of a two-day investor event in suburban Detroit, the company also pledged to unseat Tesla and become the electric vehicle market share leader in U.S., although no time frame was given.
The biggest semiconductor manufacturers in the world are quickly trying to build new factories as the global chip crisis continues to wreak havoc on a plethora of industries.
U.S. semiconductor giant Intel announced in March that it plans to spend $20 billion on two new chip plants in Arizona. Separately, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) said it was going to build a $12 billion factory in Arizona, and chief executive C.C. Wei said Wednesday that construction had already begun.
Anjani Trivedi is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies in Asia.
There it is again: Another automaker makes a big announcement about its electrification plans with a battery manufacturer. Going by previous proclamations, that’s not just ambitious but far-fetched.
Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation Company announced that they are partnering to spend $11.4 billion on three electric-car battery plants across the United States, making it the most sizable investment in the automaker’s 118-year-history.
(CNN)Ford Motor Co. and South Korea-based energy company SK Innovations are investing $11.4 billion to build two new enormous manufacturing campuses for electric vehicles, creating more than 10,000 new jobs and representing Ford’s largest-ever single manufacturing investment in the company’s 118-year history.
Ford’s share of the investment will be $7 billion, Ford executives said. Ford previously announced it will spend $30 billion by 2025 on its shift to building more electric vehicles and that it expects 40% of its sales, worldwide, to be fully electric vehicles by 2030.
