Table set for Honda's massive bet on Canada's electric vehicle sector

When word of Honda's soon-to-be-announced electric vehicle investment leaked to Bloomberg News on Sunday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford saw an opening to boast about his government's success in getting into the automotive battery business.

"We've overtaken China and knocked them off the pedestal for the first time ever," he told the First Nations Major Project Coalition conference on Monday morning, referring to Canada's top spot in a recent global supply chain ranking.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford attend an announcement for a Volkswagen electric vehicle battery plant at the Elgin County Railway Museum in St. Thomas, Ont.

Canada's share of North American manufacturing could have been in jeopardy if the federal and provincial governments hadn't stepped up with both investment tax credits and production subsidies to compete with the Inflation Reduction Act introduced by U.S. President Joe Biden.

Quebec's economy minister, Pierre Fitzgibbon, told reporters at the National Assembly Tuesday that he was in talks to land a piece of Honda's business at the industrial park in Bécancour, Que., where other automotive giants are setting up cathode materials manufacturing.

Last September, Japan's economy, trade and investment minister Yasutoshi Nishimura visited Ottawa with a delegation of Japanese businesspeople from its battery supply chain association ( BASC) and corporations like Panasonic Energy, Asahi-Kasei, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo.