Magna planning on new battery facilities outside of Canada

Published reports indicate Magna International is looking to invest as much as $600 million on new facilities for production of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.

But Canada’s biggest auto-parts maker does not appear to plan to spend any of that cash in Canada and is instead scouting locations for plants in the U.S. and Europe.

Siegfried Wolf, Magna co-CEO, told journalists in Vienna today the company would spend around $200 to $300 million for each plant.

Bloomberg News says Wolf went on to say the decision on the location in the European Union will be made by the end of the year, Wolf said.

The proposed pair of factories would mark Magna’s first lithium-ion production facilities, spokeswoman Edda Graf said by e-mail to the news agency.


In an email to journalists, auto analysts Dennis DesRosiers called it a “sad day in the automotive sector in Canada when our number one parts supplier decides to build two battery plants and neither of them are in Canada.”


- With files from Bloomberg News