Approximately $750 million will be invested in Granby by Volta Canada Energy Solutions to manufacture materials that will be found in electric vehicle batteries. The company obtains a forgivable loan of 150 million from the Legault government to create 264 jobs.
Ottawa is also participating in the financial package, but the extent of the aid granted to Volta was not specified on Tuesday at a press conference. Details were presented by Prime Minister François Legault, Minister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy Pierre Fitzgibbon and Federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne , at a press conference.
Volta Canada will produce copper sheets. They go into making the anode, the negative pole of the lithium-ion battery. It is the first complex of its kind in Canada.
“It’s an important piece of the battery industry that we’re building right now in Quebec, which will help attract more investment in the coming years,” said Mr. Legault.
This project is not a surprise in itself.
Since March 31, 2022, Solus Advanced Materials, a South Korean group to which Volta belongs, has owned the former Circuit Foil Luxembourg plant. The multinational had paid 81 million to get its hands on the land and the building, located in the industrial park of Granby, whose floor area is 90,000 square feet.
The activities of the Granby plant should start in 2026. It is expected to produce 25,000 tons of copper sheets per year. This capacity will reach 63,000 tons the following year, when the plant will be expanded. This should make it possible to supply part of the materials needed for 2.5 million vehicles annually.
Operation ceased in 2005 at Circuit Foil Luxembourg. Limited activities continued until 2014. The Quebec state injected 104 million into the adventure between 1999 and 2003. The factory produced copper sheets for the printed circuit market.
