Honda is postponing its $15-billion electric vehicle production plans in Ontario.

News broke of the pause on May 13, with the company citing the slowdown in the EV market as the cause.

“Due to the recent slowdown of the EV market, Honda Motor has announced an approximate two-year postponement of the comprehensive value chain investment project in Canada,” Honda Canada said in an emailed statement. “The company will continue to evaluate the timing and project progression as market conditions change.”

Honda further went on to say this decision has no impact on current employment levels or production at the Honda manufacturing facility in Alliston, Ont.

What are Honda’s EV value chain plans?

Honda is planning what it calls a comprehensive EV value chain consisting of four manufacturing plants with an investment of about $15 billion.

This would include an EV assembly plant and EV battery plant in Alliston, near its existing Honda of Canada Mfg. Facility.

Honda also plans to build a cathode active material and precursor processing plant in a yet-unannounced location through a joint venture partnership with POSCO Future M Co., Ltd., as well as a separator plant in Port Colborne through a joint venture partnership with Asahi Kasei Corporation.

Initial plans called for EV assembly plant to be operational by 2028, with a production capacity of 240,000 vehicles per year.

Honda expected the EV assembly and battery assembly plants in Alliston to create a minimum of 1,000 jobs, plus a significant number of spin off jobs.

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