Construction at PowerCo SE Gigaplant set to begin in 2024

Volkswagen Group-owned battery company PowerCo SE has announced that the site of its future cell Gigafactory in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada is now prepared for groundbreaking and the start of construction in 2024.

The site will be PowerCo SE's first overseas Gigafactory for cell manufacturing and will equip the Volkswagen Group brand's all-electric vehicles in North America with unified cells - a technology designed for cost-efficient scale production.

The 600ha site is also expected to be the firm's largest PowerCo Gigafactory to date with an annual production capacity of up to 90GWh in the final expansion phase. The site is expected to employ up to 3,000 high skilled staff and will be supplied with CO₂-free energy.

The cell factory itself, meanwhile, will span a built over area of 150ha, and is projected to start production in 2027. The Volkswagen Group plans to introduce a broad portfolio of electric vehicles in the U.S.A and Canada by 2030, and to expand its Electrify America coast-to-coast charging network in the U.S.A and Canada.