NORTHVOLT GIGAFACTORY: UP TO 18 MONTHS BEHIND SCHEDULE

By Anne Bourgoin

Deadlines for the Nortvolt plant on Montréal’s South Shore, scheduled to start up in 2027, will be revised. This was confirmed by Pierre Fitzgibbon, then Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy – Minister Responsible for Regional Economic Development, in an interview with La Presse: “I think we can assume that there will be a delay of 12 to 18 months.”

The process of obtaining permits to prepare and excavate the site, which spreads over the municipalities of Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville, took much longer than the company had initially planned. The project was also slowed down by the media attention surrounding the accelerated process, which avoided a study by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE — Public Hearings Office).

Like many others in the sector, Nortvolt faces a number of challenges. Its gigafactory in Sweden is experiencing production rate difficulties, which led to the loss of the BMW order estimated at 3 billion. Northvolt co-founder Peter Carlsson admitted in July that “expansion has been a little too aggressive.”

PICTURE CREDIT: Northvolt