DETROIT – Ford Motor will make investments 1.8 billion Canadian {dollars} (about $1.3 billion) in its Oakville Meeting Plant in Ontario, Canada, to transition the power into a brand new electrical car hub, the automaker mentioned Tuesday.

The plant, which will likely be renamed the Oakville Electrical Automobile Advanced, will construct the corporate’s next-generation EVs which can be anticipated to reach to market round mid-decade. The retooling is anticipated to take six months and start within the second quarter of subsequent 12 months, Ford mentioned.

“We’re reusing all of its infrastructure, from the land itself to the buildings and even its roads to rapidly put together for a brand new technology of producing,” mentioned Dave Nowicki, director of EV manufacturing on the automaker, throughout a media name.

Ford declined to reveal the plant’s anticipated manufacturing capability or what number of electrical car fashions the retooled facility will construct. When the automaker initially agreed to the funding take care of Canadian auto union Unifor in 2020, the plant was anticipated to provide 5 EV fashions. Nevertheless, these plans might have been scaled again to 2 automobiles, in response to Automotive Information.

The modifications to the Oakville advanced will embrace combining three physique outlets into one and including battery pack meeting, Ford mentioned. The power will use cells from a battery plant that is at the moment beneath building in Kentucky.

The Oakville advanced would be the firm’s first time utterly retooling a North American facility producing gas-powered automobiles into one which manufactures EVs. It has beforehand retooled components of vegetation, constructed onto current vegetation or introduced new manufacturing amenities for EVs.

The Oakville plant will proceed to construct the gas-powered Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus crossovers up till the plant’s downtime subsequent 12 months. An organization spokesman declined to reveal its manufacturing plans for these automobiles after the funding is accomplished.

The funding is a part of Ford’s plan to have manufacturing capability for two million EVs globally by the top of 2026.