Volkswagen Group’s choice of Ontario for a new battery cell manufacturing plant puts Canada in contention to land an additional auto assembly operation, as the German automaker’s luxury brand Audi weighs establishing a new North American site to build electric vehicles, auto analysts say.
A Canadian assembly plant to complement the planned battery site in St. Thomas, Ont. “is a real possibility,” said Conrad Layson, senior alternative-propulsion analyst at U.S.-based forecasting firm AutoForecast Solutions (AFS).
“It puts the Audi production line very close to the PowerCo facility … and there are benefits to that.”