- Ford will invest $1.3 million in a new assembly plant in Ontario to transition to more EV hubs in North America.
- As part of its larger Ford+ plan, the company has pledged to invest over $50 billion in EVs through 2026.
- Ford’s move is part of a larger pattern of more carmakers turning to Ontario as a new source of EV production.
As the brand continues its move toward an electric future, Ford is investing $1.3 billion USD to make a new North American hub for EV production. The site will be renamed the Oakville Electric Vehicle Complex, and it’s located in Ontario, Canada. Production on this new Ford EV production site will start in 2025.
Ford’s EV Production Plans
Ford’s announcement is part of its Ford+ growth plan, which involves investing over $50 billion in EVs and producing 2 million EVs annually by the end of 2026.
The new Oakville plant will include a 407,000-square-foot battery plant, where parts produced at Ford’s U.S. operations will be assembled into battery packs.
The company did not specify which models it planned to build at the Oakville complex, which currently produces the gas-powered Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus. Ford has apparently initially planned to produce five EV models at the Oakville plant, but the plans may have been scaled back to just two EVs.
A General Move Toward More North American Production
Ford joins Stellantis as another brand that plans to produce passenger EVs in Canada for the North American market. Stellantis and LG Energy Solution have also committed to spending more than $5 billion to build an EV battery plant in Windsor, Ontario, while Stellantis is also spending $3.6 billion on its Windsor and Brampton plants to prepare them for both electric and ICE auto production.
GM is already producing electric delivery vans in Canada, too, with additional plans to build motors for EVs at its St. Catharines propulsion plant and produce them at its Ingersoll plant.
The Canadian government is incentivizing the transition to electric vehicles, requiring that at least 20% of new vehicles sold in Canada will be zero-emission by 2026, at least 60% by 2030, and 100% by 2035.
The federal and Ontario governments have agreed to provide $295 million CAD each in funding to secure the Ford investment. This investment is just one of many seen in Canada in recent years, with Volkswagen announcing back in March that it will build its first battery cell plant outside of Europe at a plant in St. Thomas.
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