Toronto, Ontario — Last week, Ford announced that its Oakville, Ont. assembly plant–which was going to be converted into an all-electric vehicle assembly hub–would now shift to produce pickup trucks.
Ford announced its plans last week to inject a US$3 billion investment into Super Duty pickup production, US$2.3 billion of which will go to the Ford Oakville Assembly Complex. The remaining funds will be used to increase production at supporting facilities throughout North America, added the OEM.
Ford said the Oakville plant should be up and running by 2026. It had previously announced investments of US$1.3 billion for Ford Oakville, as well as plans to produce a three-row SUV EV. Ford maintains this vehicle will now be built elsewhere.
It’s no secret that Canadians love their trucks–and CEO Jim Farley is confident in that fact. He told reporters in April that Ford could sell every truck it builds twice over and emphasized that a Ford vehicle rolls off the production line every 33 seconds in the United States.
In a similar vein, General Motors CEO Mary Barra told listeners during the automaker’s Q2 2024 earnings call that the OEM would delay the opening of its EV assembly line in Detroit, Michigan, for the second time. Barra now reports the EV production line will commence in mid-2026. This means General Motors will not hit its target of building one million EVs by the end of 2025.
Bloomberg also reports that GM has delayed the introduction of a Buick plug-in hybrid electric vehicle amid “uncertain growth in battery-powered car sales.”
During the investment call, analysts pressed Barra for information about Ford’s battery cell plant plans. The company had previously stated it would open four battery cell plants by 2026. Barra responded that Ford’s cell production operations would grow at a “meaningful cadence.”
“We’re going to continue to be guided by the customer,” GM CFO Paul Jacobson told listeners during the July 23 call. “We’re rapidly scaling cell plants one and two. We have nothing to comment on right now.”
General Motors’ EV deliveries increased 40 percent in Q2 2024, yet EV sales only made up 3.2 percent of its total U.S. Q2 2024 sales.
