EV battery gigafactory to be built in Quebec by 2026 (2024)

The Montreal area will soon be a major contributor to the electric vehicle industry. Swedish battery developer Northvolt has announced it will build a factory in the Montérégie region that will produce batteries for one million electrified vehicles per year. The project is valued at $7 billion and the Quebec government put $2.9 billion towards the new facility, while the federal government threw in an additional $1.3 billion.

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It’s the largest private investment in Quebec’s history, according to Quebec Premier François Legault, and the first time Northvolt will build one of its gigafactories outside of Europe.

It’ll be called Northvolt Six and will have an output of 60 GWh of cell manufacturing capacity each year. Further to EV battery creation, the new factory will also have a battery recycling facility on site as well as a facility for cathode active material production.

Prime Minister Trudeau attended the in-person announcement in Montreal, calling it “historic and transformative,” noting this new Northvolt factory will “bring end-to-end battery manufacturing to Canada, making our country one of only a few locations to have this capacity outside of Asia.”

A 420-acre lot in Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville, two towns that are situated side-by-side just outside of Montreal, will be home to the new EV battery factory, which will be fully operational by 2026 and will create about 3,000 jobs at the plant. Trudeau claims it can add $1.6 billion to the economy once fully operational.