BERLIN—  Volkswagen’s battery subsidiary Powerco and Belgium’s Umicore are to increase their cooperation on cathode materials to Canada, which the carmaker is contemplating as the situation of its first North American cell manufacturing unit, VW stated on Thursday.

“Website search in Canada for our first battery manufacturing unit in North America begins now!” Volkswagen stated on its official LinkedIn Web page. “Our CEO Oliver Blume and the Canadian Minister for Innovation, Science and Business François-Philippe Champagne signed an extra settlement to the present Memorandum of Understanding to establish appropriate areas for a brand new PowerCo SE cell manufacturing unit.”

The German auto large signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with supplies agency Umicore for a long-term strategic partnership geared in the direction of future cell manufacturing within the area, an announcement stated.

In September, Volkswagen and Umicore introduced a US$2.9 billion battery elements three way partnership to provide PowerCo’s European battery cell factories with key supplies from 2025 onwards.

In the meantime, Umicore on July 13 dedicated to spending about C$1.5 billion to construct an built-in manufacturing plant for cathode and precursor battery supplies exterior Kingston, Ont.

Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume and Canadian business minister Francois-Philippe Champagne additionally signed an addendum to their present MoU from August, agreeing to establish appropriate websites for the deliberate cell plant.

“Battery expertise is vital for our technique,” stated Blume, including that Volkswagen was dedicated to investing in North America.

Blue added extra remark within the LinkedIn submit.

“The EV market in North America is at a turning level and we’re dedicated to investing throughout all the area to leverage this historic probability for Volkswagen and our clients,” he stated.

Automotive Information Canada contributed to this report.