The plant would combine the production of precursor and cathode materials, the companies say.
Umicore is building a plant in Ontario, Canada, to supply materials to PowerCo and other companies and plans to start operations at the end of 2025. The company says that it could reach an annual production capacity capable of powering approximately one million EVs by 2030.
“Taking our partnership across the Atlantic would foster Umicore’s and PowerCo’s shared strategic convictions of enabling and accelerating clean mobility on a secure and sustainable local-for-local basis,” said Ralph Kiessling, executive vice president of Umicore. “For Umicore, a long-term cooperation with PowerCo would support our plans to build Canada’s first-of-its-kind precursor and cathode materials facility, which would in turn provide PowerCo with secure access to these critical materials and enable the ramp up of its battery cell production in North America,”
Umicore and PowerCo have already agreed to form a joint venture to produce battery materials for about 2.2 million electric vehicles a year by the end of the decade in Europe.
