Umicore reportedly delayed plans for its C$2.8bn (US$2bn) Ontario electric vehicle battery materials plant as consumer adoption falls short of expectations.
Bloomberg said the manufacturer had confirmed plans in October to build the cathode materials plant but said in its half-year review on Friday that it would put off spending on construction pending further analysis of the maximum capacity of its current operations.
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It was, the report said, the latest blow to Canada’s nascent electric vehicle supply chain. Automakers including Ford and General Motors also recently announced delays to manufacturing in Ontario for the sector, citing lower than expected demand. Northvolt AB was reviewing its timeline for a battery cell factory near Montreal.
Umicore, which is based in Brussels and has a European EV battery materials joint venture with Volkswagen, had said in June it was starting to reassess its new projects around the world due to “the slowdown and ongoing reviews of the investments plans by EV manufacturers”, Bloomberg noted.
The Ontario plant had been expected to open by 2026 and provide battery materials for as much as 800,000 electric vehicles annually. The Canadian government planned to invest as much as C$551.3m in the factory while Ontario’s government planned to invest up to C$424.6m.
“Our battery material business is not in a state that we would hope it to be at this point in time,” Bloomberg cited Umicore CEO Bart Sap as saying in an interview today.
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