OTTAWA — A unit of South Korea’s Solus Superior Supplies will construct a $750-million copper foil facility in Quebec, producing know-how for electric-vehicle (EV) batteries.

The Volta Vitality Options undertaking within the city of Granby needs to be at full manufacturing capability in 2026, a spokesperson for federal Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne mentioned in a press release.

Copper foil, wanted to fabricate lithium-ion batteries for EVs, is used as an anode collector.

The corporate at present produces copper foil in Luxembourg and battery copper foil in Hungary. The Granby plant would be the third manufacturing facility and “reply to the more and more rising demand of the North American market,” the corporate mentioned in a press release.

This preliminary launch will produce 25,000 tons of copper foil per 12 months and can improve to 63,000 tons per 12 months with Section 2, which the corporate says is sufficient to provide copper foils for as many as 2.5 million automobiles in North America. 

Canada, house to a big mining sector for minerals akin to lithium, nickel and cobalt, needs to woo companies concerned in all ranges of the EV provide chain by way of a multibillion-dollar inexperienced know-how fund because the world seeks to lower carbon emissions.

“Canada is a associate of alternative in relation to the way forward for the automotive sector,” Champagne mentioned in a press release.

The Volta plant is predicted to make use of 260 individuals. Granby is near Becancour, a small city to the east of Montreal in search of to turn into an EV provide chain hub.

The provincial authorities will present Volta Vitality Options a $150 million mortgage, to be partly forgiven if the agency meets situations akin to sustaining 260 jobs on the plant.

“Extra initiatives of the type are additionally developing, solidifying our place as a inexperienced economic system chief in North America,” Quebec Premier François Legault mentioned in a press release.

The Canadian authorities didn’t disclose how a lot it’s prepared to contribute. Negotiations are nonetheless ongoing.

South Korean companies have been investing closely in Canada amid the worldwide push to refashion the automobile provide chain round electrical autos. LG Vitality Options Ltd. partnered with Stellantis NV to construct a battery plant in Windsor, Ont., getting as a lot as $16 billion in incentives to offset capital and working prices over a decade.

In August, a consortium of Ford Motor Co and South Korean corporations mentioned they might construct a $1.2-billion plant to supply EV battery supplies in Becancour.

Normal Motors has additionally signed an settlement with a South Korean agency and plans battery supplies plant in Quebec.