'We bagged a unicorn': New EV battery manufacturing plant announced for Windsor

Impact of future battery plant on community There is a lot of opportunity looming but also a lot of work to be done before reaping the benefits. CTV Windsor’s Bob Bellacicco explains.

Windsor will be home to the first electric vehicle battery manufacturing operation in Canada, the nearly $5-billion joint venture is expected to create an estimated 2,500 jobs for the area.

A number of politicians and business leaders were in Windsor for the big announcement Wednesday that Stellantis and LG Energy Solution have executed “binding, definitive agreements” to establish an electric vehicle battery plant which will produce lithium-ion battery cells and modules in the region.

“We are the automotive capital of Canada. We are claiming the title of the automobility capital of Canada,” Mayor Drew Dilkens said.

The batteries will initially supply all of Stellantis’ North American electric vehicles.

“The cars of the future will be built in Ontario from start to finish,” Premier Doug Ford said.

Stellantis and LG Energy expect the plant will serve as a catalyst for the creation of a strong battery supply chain in the region.

“It’s one of these things that every community would like to get. Today, we bagged a unicorn,” Dilkens said.

The plant aims to have an annual production capacity of more than 35 gigawatt hours and will create an estimated 2,500 new jobs for the Windsor-Essex region.

But it’s the accompanying supply chain that is expected to put tens of thousands more to work.

“We’re the only place in the Western Hemisphere that has everything you need, not only to build an EV battery, but to build electric vehicles. The complete supply chain, the full ecosystem. That’s what makes it so historic,” Fedeli said.