Quebec battery processing plant eyed by Stellantis, Mercedes

Headquartered in Paris, ACC inaugurated the first of three planned European cell plants in northern France last week.

Automotive Cells Co. (ACC), a battery cell manufacturing joint venture between Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and France-based energy giant TotalEnergies, is eying Quebec as the possible location for a new battery processing plant, according to lobbyist filings with the Canadian government.

Two consultants acting on behalf of the cell producer, which is currently focused on the European market, began engaging with Ottawa on possible grants and incentives tied to the development of a facility at an unspecified location in Quebec on May 19.

The filings describe the prospective site as a "new battery processing facility," without giving further details on what stage battery production process the plant would target.

The pair of lobbyists with consulting firm Ernst & Young said ACC plans to engage with several federal agencies on the file, including Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), the department that has stickhandled the recent influx of automotive and battery cell supply chain investments in Quebec and Ontario.

Headquartered in Paris, ACC inaugurated the first of three planned European cell plants in northern France last week. It expects to open two others in Germany and Italy by 2026, investing roughly 7 billion euros (about CDN $10 billion) in the process.

ISED would not comment on the talks, while ACC did not respond to requests for comment about its possible plans for Quebec.

Canada's largest and second-most populous province has been positioning itself as a clean, reliable source of battery materials as global auto and battery players race to secure supplies of lithium, nickel, graphite and other key materials used in battery cells.

In March, the North American Lithium project in northwestern Quebec began commercial production of lithium-rich spodumene concentrate, becoming the first significant producer of the metal in Canada. A flurry of other mining projects is in development, along with several mid-stream facilities expected to process locally sourced materials into battery-grade products.

Both automakers involved in ACC joint venture have been engaged with Ottawa on opportunities in Canada's battery supply chain for more than a year.

Stellantis, which has built vehicles in the country for nearly a century, is already midway through construction of a battery plant in Windsor, Ont. Mercedes-Benz has no production footprint in Canada today, but signed a non-binding deal to work with the federal government on critical minerals last August, and opened a raw materials office in Canada on March 1.

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