PowerCo Pushes Ontario Battery Plant Opening to 2029, Names EllisDon Builder
Volkswagen's PowerCo now expects its St. Thomas battery-cell factory to begin operations in 2029. EllisDon will lead the next construction phase as the project adopts a more flexible rollout.
Volkswagen’s PowerCo now expects its battery-cell factory in St. Thomas, Ontario, to begin operations in 2029, two years later than the original 2027 production target. The company also named Canadian builder EllisDon general contractor for the next phase of construction. In practical terms, work on the site continues, but the schedule for producing cells there has moved back.
PowerCo attributed the revised timing to evolving EV-battery demand, advances in battery technology and Volkswagen Group’s long-term strategy, according to The Canadian Press’s September 24 report. The company says the later start will let it prepare for next-generation cells and scale the factory in stages as market conditions develop. That is a company plan, not a guarantee that output will reach any particular level by 2029.
What Changes at St. Thomas?
EllisDon’s assignment covers the production-building shell, mechanical and electrical installations, utilities and other site services, local reporting on the September 24 announcement says. Roughly 60 EllisDon employees are already on site, with the contractor’s workforce expected to rise to about 1,300 at peak construction. Those are construction staffing projections, not a count of permanent factory jobs.
The timeline has shifted more than once. Volkswagen’s 2023 project announcement projected production in 2027. Local reporting says that target was later revised to the second quarter of 2028 before the new 2029 expectation. PowerCo has not specified a month in 2029 for the start of operations.
Why the Delay Matters
St. Thomas is central to Volkswagen’s plan to make battery cells in North America rather than rely entirely on overseas supply. The company originally described it as its first cell factory outside Europe, intended to supply Volkswagen Group EVs in the region. It outlined capacity of up to 90 GWh a year in a final expansion phase, with an investment plan of up to C$7 billion. Those figures describe the project’s planned scale, not current or committed 2029 production.
For Canada, the immediate consequence is a longer wait for locally made cells and for the full industrial payoff promised when the project was announced. The EllisDon contract shows that construction is proceeding; it does not erase the later operating date. It also does not, on its own, tell Canadian EV shoppers when a particular Volkswagen model will use a St. Thomas-made battery, what chemistry those cells will use, or whether vehicle prices will change.
The next useful milestones are visible construction progress, a firmer commissioning schedule and a confirmed production ramp. Until PowerCo provides those details, 2029 should be read as an expected start year, not as a promise of full-capacity output.
The broader Canadian EV battery supply-chain picture remains a mix of announced projects, construction and production. This update is a reminder to distinguish those stages when judging how close a new factory is to supplying vehicles.