Here’s how Canada locked down Volkswagen’s first overseas EV battery plant

The $14-billion deal will see Volkswagen, the world's largest automaker, set up a manufacturing presence in Canada for the first time in history.

The $14-billion deal that will see Volkswagen, the world’s largest automaker, set up a manufacturing presence in Canada for the first time in history, took a year of negotiations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

But the talks that led Volkswagen to choose southwestern Ontario for the location of its first battery plant outside Europe all started with a whim.

Out of the blue in early 2022, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne decided he should call the company’s then-North American CEO, Scott Keogh. His staff dug up the number.

Champagne said in an interview with The Canadian Press that he’d never met Keogh before, but he got him on the phone on St. Patrick’s Day last year.

“I introduced myself, and I said, ‘Listen, here I am, Minister Champagne from Canada. I would like to start a discussion.”’

Volkswagen has sold cars in Canada for decades, but it has never made them here. Still, like other large automakers, it is making the transition to produce electric vehicles. And producing the batteries that power them requires a solid supply chain.

Canada is in the midst of a massive push to corner at least some of that industry for itself, with enthusiastic buy-in from provincial and municipal governments.

Champagne, who is well known for his boundless energy, seems to have taken that on as his personal mission. Even Ontario Premier Doug Ford was referring to the minister as the “energizer bunny” by the time the deal was done.