Economy and Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon said a lack of labor played a role in the failure of Volkswagen’s battery plant, which required a supply of electricity in tight deadlines.
Mr. Fitzgibbon explained Thursday that Hydro-Quebec could have responded to the German company’s supply request in the Saguenay or on the North Shore.
However, for its battery factory project for electric cars, the company needed 4,000 to 6,000 employees, which was impossible in these two regions.
Volkswagen wanted to settle in the Montreal region to take advantage of the more abundant workforce, explained the minister.
“The megawatt requirements for Montreal in the first quarter of 2027 were technically impossible,” he said in a press briefing.
Connecting an installation of the company, which required a supply, would however have been possible within the deadlines further north, affirmed the minister.
“We can do it in Saguenay, we can do it in Sept-Îles, but they wanted to do it in Montreal,” he said.
Volkswagen has announced that its subsidiary PowerCo will build an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in St. Thomas, Ontario.
More details will follow.
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