Ford, partners pick Canada for $900 million battery materials plant

investing.com:

By Steve Scherer

OTTAWA (Reuters) -A consortium of Ford Motor (NYSE:F) Co and South Korean companies on Thursday said they would build a C$1.2 billion ($887 million)plant to produce electric vehicle (EVs) battery materials in Becancour, Quebec, a town seeking to become an EV-supply-chain hub, Canada's industry ministry said.

The consortium includes South Korean partners EcoProBM and SK On Co Ltd, according a statement from the ministry. The factory will eventually produce 45,000 tonnes of cathode active materials (CAM) per year for Ford EVs.

Ford in a separate statement described the materials as high-quality Nickel Cobalt Manganese (NCM) for rechargeable batteries that are targeting greater performance and improved EV range.

«This cathode facility will supply the material that goes into Ford's future EVs in North America, specifically some of our future trucks,» Lisa Drake, Ford vice president for EVs, told reporters.

It is Ford's first investment in Quebec, although it has operated in neighboring Ontario for more than a century.

Canada's federal government will provide the consortium with a conditional loan of C$322 million and Quebec will offer the same amount as a partially forgivable loan, the statement said. The factory is expected to be operational in the first half of 2026, creating more than 345 jobs.

This is the latest in a series of construction announcements for Becancour, a town of fewer than 15,000 people on the St. Lawrence River that is shaping up to be an EV-supply-chain hub in North America.

«This is a big vote of confidence in the (EV) ecosystem we've been building,» Canada industry minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told Reuters. «This is very significant for Quebec, because as you know the auto