Leveraging its mineral wealth and long automotive history, Canada is positioning itself to play a leading role in North America’s electric-vehicle battery supply chain.
But fierce competition and regulatory hang-ups mean that success is hardly assured.
China currently accounts for between 75 and 85 per cent of the world’s capacity for both battery-material refining and cell manufacturing, said James Frith, an analyst who heads the energy storage team at researchers BloombergNEF. But North America is poised to regain ground as it moves production back to the continent throughout the 2020s.
“If you have a supply chain stretching the length of the globe, it becomes harder to fit into [the auto industry’s] just-in-time business model,” Frith said.