Ford is investing C$1.8 billion to transform its Oakville Assembly Complex into a Canadian hub of electric vehicle manufacturing that will include vehicle and battery pack assembly. The site transformation in Oakville is a key to Ford’s plan to reach a global production run rate of 2 million EVs annually by the end of 2026
The new campus – to be renamed Oakville Electric Vehicle Complex – will be a high-volume manufacturing hub for North American EV production, repurposing existing buildings into a state-of-the-art facility.
Ford will begin to retool and transform the Oakville complex in the second quarter of 2024 to prepare for production of electric vehicles beginning in 2025
The news makes Ford the first full-line automaker committed to producing passenger EVs in Canada for the North American market
“Canada and the Oakville complex will play a vital role in our Ford+ transformation. It will be a modern, super-efficient, vertically integrated site for battery and vehicle assembly,” said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO. “I’m most excited for the world to see the incredible next-generation electric and fully digitally connected vehicles produced in Oakville.”
The current 487-acre Oakville site includes three body shops, one paint building, one assembly building. The transformed campus will feature a new 407,000 square-foot on-site battery plant that will utilize cells and arrays from BlueOval SK Battery Park in Kentucky. Oakville workers will take these components and assemble battery packs that will then be installed in vehicles assembled on-site.
“Ford’s transformation from gas to electric vehicles is well underway. Once complete, the Oakville Electric Vehicle Complex will secure thousands of well-paying jobs for our hard-working Canadian autoworkers and boost the competitiveness of Canada’s auto sector. The partnership between Ford and Canada helps to position us as a global leader in the EV supply chain for decades to come,” said François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development of Canada.
The announcement is a major shot in the arm for the Ford Government’s strategy of developing an end-to-end EV industry that encompasses mining rare minerals used in the production of EV batteries, through to vehicle assembly. It follows closely on the announcement by Volkswagen of a new EV battery plant in St.Thomas.
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