Port Colborne will be the future home of a manufacturing plant that produces crucial components for electric vehicle batteries.
Elected officials from all levels of the Canadian government were joined by executives from the multinational Japanese chemical company Asahi Kasei in the Niagara Region on Tuesday afternoon, where they announced the $1.6 billion investment to create the manufacturing site.
Construction on the facility is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024, with officials expecting it to be commercially operational in 2027.
The facility will produce Asahi Kasei’s trademarked “Hipore” battery separators, a “microporous membrane” that keeps electrodes apart and prevents short circuits from occurring in battery cells.
The news comes in part due to Honda Canada’s push to retool and reconfigure its Alliston car plant to focus solely on EVs.
READ MORE: Honda to get up to $5B in government assistance for EV battery, assembly plants
“As demand for electric vehicles — and the lithium-ion batteries that power them —continues to rise, we are eager to bring the first Hipore wet-process lithium-ion separator manufacturing facility to Canada,” Koshiro Kudo, Asahi Kasei’s president.
“Backed by the abundant renewable resources, skilled talent, and strong local community support here in Port Colborne, we will be able to better serve our partners in the region as well as the broader North American automotive market from this facility.”
While at a press conference yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland pointed to to tax credit incentives created by the federal government as a draw for foreign enterprise in the region.
“When it comes to Honda, what we’re seeing is our economic plan — when it comes to the next-gen of cars, the next-gen of EV’s — is working,” she said.
“Canada is now rated by Bloomberg, ahead of China, as the country with the best, full supply chain, in electric batteries.”
This story is developing. Check back for more.