{"id":63535,"date":"2024-05-16T13:15:17","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T20:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/energi.media\/?p=63535"},"modified":"2024-05-16T13:15:17","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T20:15:17","slug":"what-hondas-big-ev-announcement-in-ontario-really-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energi.media\/news\/what-hondas-big-ev-announcement-in-ontario-really-means\/","title":{"rendered":"What Honda\u2019s big EV announcement in Ontario really means"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was published by The Conversation<\/a> on May 15, 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Dimitry Anastakis<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In retrospect, the turnaround \u2014 and just how fast it happened \u2014 is difficult to believe.<\/p>\n

In 2010,\u00a0Ontario\u2019s economic future looked grim<\/a>. Tied as it had been for more than a century to the automobile industry, the provincial economy was in freefall.<\/p>\n

General Motors and Chrysler went bankrupt, dozens of plants were shuttered,\u00a0and tens of thousands of well-paying auto jobs were lost along Ontario\u2019s automotive-producing zone from Windsor to Oshawa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ontario\u2019s auto sector, once the wellspring of the province\u2019s prosperity, looked to be in the process of an inevitable decline. It was, quite literally, a dinosaur industry seemingly destined to go the way of Australia\u2019s, which closed its\u00a0last car plant in 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Barely 15 years later, in April Honda announced\u00a0a massive $15 billion investment into its Ontario facilities to build the firm\u2019s next generation of electric vehicles (EVs)<\/a>. This investment is, by quite a margin, the largest ever foreign direct expenditure in Canada.<\/p>\n

Honda\u2019s decision capped a series of announced spending and investment initiatives (by both public and private interests) in Canada\u2019s auto sector since 2020\u00a0totalling over $50 billion<\/a>. This is an astonishing figure that secures Ontario as the only jurisdiction on the planet boasting six major auto manufacturers, all rapidly transitioning towards the next generation of vehicles and the batteries to power them.<\/p>\n

So, what just happened, and why? And what does it all mean?<\/p>\n