Quebec and Ottawa will lift the veil on Monday on the financial support of “a few hundred” million dollars that will be offered to General Motors (GM) to join the ranks of the Quebec battery industry, learned La Presse. The announcement will be made in Bécancour, where the Energy Transition Valley will also be presented.
The arrival of the automaker and its partner – the South Korean company POSCO – was announced with great fanfare a little over a year ago, but details of the financial support from the two were still awaited. levels of government. We will finally have the details on Monday afternoon. At the time of the announcement last year, the bill for the project was expected to be at least half a billion dollars.
For the occasion, Prime Minister François Legault, Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy Pierre Fitzgibbon as well as Federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, will be gathered in the industrial park of Bécancour, the place privileged by Quebec to develop the sector of the batteries.
In Quebec, GM and POSCO will build cathodes, a key component of the lithium-ion battery found in electric cars. Cathodes represent approximately 40% of the cost of a battery cell.
With respect to the Energy Transition Valley, this strategy aims to position Quebec as a leader in the transportation electrification niche. Bécancour, Trois-Rivières and Shawinigan must be part of the initiative.
The Detroit-based automaker’s project is already underway in the Bécancour industrial park. Since last December, GM and its partner have owned land with an estimated 3.75 million square feet (348,189 square meters) south of Highway 30, which runs through the industrial park.
Another multinational, the German chemical giant BASF, has also announced its intention to come and manufacture cathodes in Quebec. However, the details of the financial assistance to be granted to the company are not known.
Everything indicates that another American automobile giant, Ford, should establish itself in the Bécancour industrial park. The company is currently discussing with the Legault government. The talks are considered serious, according to our information.