Magna, Electrovaya, Dana Holding and Toyota venture funded
Driving Green Employment in Ontario
by John Goddard, TheStar.com
Magna International Inc., with Ontario government help, will invest $430 million to advance the electric car and other automotive technologies in this province.
The company will undertake 19 separate research and development projects over the next six years, Magna chief executive Don Walker told a gathering Monday at the Magna plant in Brampton.
If all these projects lead to new products, they would in turn create 728 new jobs, Walker said.
The research projects involve work on parts for hybrid vehicles and on light bio-based materials to improve fuel efficiency.
“What powers our cars is changing,” Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Trade Minister Sandra Pupatello told the gathering. “The pieces that go into our cars are changing.”
Of the total investment, $48 million will come from the province to support “development of the next generation of electric vehicle technologies,” Pupatello said.
Walker said the government money helps keep research and development work and any potential jobs in Ontario.
Magna, based in Aurora, is North America’s largest auto parts supplier. Twenty per cent of the company’s global workforce of 104,000 works in Ontario.
Monday’s announcement was organized and staged by the provincial government — turning it into a political event in advance of the writ dropping for the Oct. 6 election.
“I will make a political comment,” said Liberal MPP Greg Sorbara, whose Vaughan riding is home to a Magna plant. “What I worry about is if the alternative is chosen in this province … grants like this, and opportunities like this, will dry up.”
Tory environment critic Toby Barrett said Sorbara is merely recycling the announcement he made four years ago as finance minister — a $50 million grant for Magna to research new vehicle technologies.
As well as possibly create 700-plus jobs, Magna’s investment will maintain 1,300 existing jobs at the car parts maker’s plants in Brampton, Aurora, Vaughan and St. Thomas.
The government has said it wants one in 20 Ontario vehicles to be electric by 2020.
Earlier in the day, Pupatello stood on a hay bale in Sarnia to announce unspecified support to help establish Bluewater Biochemicals Inc. as a producer of clean biochemicals, to replace a variety of petrochemicals and industrial chemicals.
The government also recently announced three other automotive investments:
• As part of a $94.8 million expansion by the clean transportation and battery company Electrovaya Corp. of Mississauga, the government is to contribute $16.7 million. The company’s battery technology lets cars drive farther on a single charge compared to rival batteries.
• As part of a $37 million investment by Dana Holding Corp. of Oakville and Cambridge, the government is to kick in $2 million. The company develops and manufactures air- and liquid-cooled battery technologies for electric and hybrid vehicles.
• As part of a $545 million investment in upgrades to Toyota plants in Cambridge and Woodstock, the government contributed $70.8 million. Toyota subsequently announced it would begin building the electric version of its RAV4 compact SUV in 2012 at the Woodstock assembly plant.
A government official says Magna International Inc. (TSX: MG) is pairing with the Ontario government to invest more than $400 million to research and develop electric vehicle technology.
The company is expected to announce later this morning at its headquarters in Brampton that the province will put forward about $48 million for the project.
The official says the plan will create more than 700 jobs.
The Ontario government has been moving forward with plans to ramp up the development of more environmentally vehicle production in the province.
Earlier this month, Toyota and the government announced that the electric version of its popular RAV4 sport utility vehicle will be manufactured in Woodstock.
Last week, Dana Holding Corp. said that Ontario joined the company in a $37 million investment in heat exchangers for batteries at a plant in Cambridge, Ont., under which the government would contribute $2 million.
