Premier Doug Ford is brushing off the latest shock to Ontario’s electric vehicle strategy as Volkswagen delays the opening of a massive battery plant south of London by two years, a reaction critics fear is naive.
“I’m not worried,” Ford said Friday after VW subsidiary PowerCo revealed the postponement until 2029 and said it has hired Canadian construction giant Ellis Don as general contractor of the $7-billion project near St. Thomas.
“What would make me worried is if they said they’re not building … that’s thousands of jobs for construction trades,” he told The Canadian Press and CityNews.
The plant, announced with fanfare in 2023 along with up to $13.2 billion in government aid billed as a “generational investment,” was to employ 3,000 workers at full production with an anticipated 30,000 spinoff jobs in production of battery components.
PowerCo said the delay is to adjust to evolving market demand, technological advancements and the long-term strategy of its parent company, The Canadian Press reports.
With the postponement, PowerCo can get “the pacing right … to protect our long-term investment (and) support regional jobs,” said chief procurement officer Joel Karlsberg.
Automakers have been pulling back on EV plans in what Unifor, the union representing thousands of autoworkers, has called the “anti-EV policies” of U.S. President Donald Trump, such as the suspension of tax credits for buying electric vehicles and slowing the build-out of EV chargers in addition to tariffs on Canadian vehicles.
Honda, for example, announced in 2025 it was putting plans on hold for a $15-billion electric vehicle plant near Alliston, where it has made the Civic for decades. In May, that plan was scrapped indefinitely, crushing hopes for 1,000 more manufacturing jobs.
“If you look at the pattern, the delay comes first, and then there’s a shift,” said Liberal MPP Stephanie Smyth (Toronto—St. Paul’s).
Smyth questioned the reactions from Ford and Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli, who said he is “thrilled” construction of the PowerCo plant is finally beginning.
“It’s a way to sugar-coat what’s happening,” she said.
New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles said she is “optimistic” the plant will open under the new timeline but noted “the delay is not good news for workers who desperately need those jobs, for all the other spinoff industries that rely on that.”
PowerCo’s move follows other blows to Ontario’s auto industry, including the loss of Jeep production at the huge Stellantis plant in Brampton to an American factory and the end of delivery van assembly at the General Motors Cami plant in Ingersoll, just east of London.
Fedeli said it had become clear that PowerCo’s original plan to open the St. Thomas plant was not going to open in 2027 because, although site preparation and infrastructure improvements like new sewers, water lines and roads were underway, actual construction of the factory had not begun.
“If you’ve been following along with it, you realize that every day they don’t start construction is a day they don’t start production,” he said.
Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association president Flavio Volpe said the situation could be a lot worse.
“Given the global headwinds, VW major restructuring dynamics and the trade war decisions made by others, this continued commitment to EV battery production is very good news,” Volpe wrote on social media Friday.
