Tech update: A reality check for Canada’s EV battery industry, and sounding the alarm on climate adaptation
Source: Janey Llewellin | · TORONTO STAR · | September 22, 2022
The window is closing on the storage opportunity, according to a new report.
Source: Toronto Star
As extreme weather fuelled by climate change continues to create chaos, experts stress the need to move away from gas and diesel-powered vehicles. Electric vehicles (EVs), they say, will contribute significantly to the reduction of global greenhouse gasses.
A new report from two Canadian research groups says we have a short window to be a key player in manufacturing EV batteries.
Clean Energy Canada and Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing believe Canada has the potential to build a domestic EV battery supply chain that could generate up to 250,000 jobs by 2030 and inject $48 billion to the Canadian economy annually.
Ottawa can start by breaking its habit of exporting Canada’s minerals and raw materials used in the production of EV batteries, it says, in favour of homegrown production.
Not yet made-in-Canada: Canada’s first EV battery and cathode manufacturing plants are under construction but until they’re up and running, we will be relying on other countries for full production. Guido Benvenuto, vice president of engineering at Kitchener-based Flex-N-Gate, which designs and builds EV battery parts, says it’s crucial for Canada to invest in a domestic supply chain. “Canada’s reliance on a foreign-based EV battery industry carries predictable risks: brain-drain, lack of autonomy, delay, political uncertainty and supply chain volatility,” he says.
Canada’s got the goods: Canada is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that has all the critical minerals required to manufacture EV batteries. “Canada has both the talent and the resources to build a lucrative domestic EV battery supply chain,” says Natasha Kostenuk, founder and CEO of Ayrton Energy, a Calgary-based EV battery charging company. “The companies that are key to the domestic EV battery supply are both large, established companies and emerging startups that are developing in this space.”