Automotive News Canada - April 2024 - 23

* APRIL 2024
23
Oakville delay: Ford biding its time for
battery tech and consumer interest
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
" Don't go to Dearborn for a meeting. It's
never going to include good news, " Payne
said.
Ford's initial plans for the renamed
Oakville Electric Vehicle Complex,
announced in April 2023, included a $1.8
billion retooling project scheduled to start
in the second quarter of 2024. Production
workers were expected to be off the job six
to eight months as the facility
southwest of Toronto was
overhauled to begin building
EVs by the start of 2025.
But on April 4, the company
said it would " re-time " the
three-row electric crossovers
it planned to build in Oakville
until 2027.
The delay will give the consumer
market for such vehicles
time to catch up while
allowing the company to
" take advantage " of emerging
battery technology, Ford said
in a release.
" Our expectation is that our members
are supported through that transition. "
GOVERNMENTS ARE WATCHING
Without pointing to specifics, Ford
Canada President Bev Goodman said the
company was " committed to taking care of
our valued Oakville employees. "
" While this change requires a revision
to the timeline, it will support a viable and
growing future for our company, employees
and dealers, " she said in a
release.
Two levels of government,
which have jointly pledged to
invest $590 million in Ford's
retooling project, are also watching
the transition and worker
supports closely.
Despite the production
delay, the company will stick
to its original schedule for
retooling. Work is expected to
start in earnest in early May
after the final Ford Edge crossovers roll
off the assembly line.
INCOME SUPPORTS
But the major scheduling change, which
Payne called " extremely disappointing, "
will extend workers' anticipated eightmonth
layoff to between two-and-a-half
and three-and-a-half years. Ford didn't say
when in 2027 it plans to start EV production,
nor did it provide the union with a
timeline.
Regardless, the lengthy retooling project
will stretch the limit of the income supports
the union negotiated during 2023.
Under the latest contract, assembly-plant
workers on layoff will receive
Supplemental Unemployment Benefits,
or SUB, equivalent to 70 per cent of their
typical wages. But how long the payouts
last depends on seniority. Ford workers
with 20 years of service will receive SUB
cheques for two years. On the opposite
end of the scale, workers with one to three
years of seniority get 36 weeks of SUB.
Payne said Unifor is focused on seeing
income support for members extended for
the full length of the retooling. The union
has requested another meeting with Ford
" as soon as possible " to address the issue.
Goodman: Ford
is " committed to
taking care of our
valued Oakville
employees. "
FILE PHOTO
Laurie Bouchard, director of
communications for FrançoisPhilippe
Champagne, Canada's
minister of innovation, science
and economic development, said
Ford " has made several commitments "
as part of the funding it
received.
" We are working with Ford
and Unifor to ensure the commitments
are realized. We will
ensure that the interests of the
workers at the plant are protected, "
she said in an email to Automotive
News Canada.
Vanessa De Matteis, spokesperson for
the Ontario ministry of economic development,
job creation and trade, said the
province has received assurances from
Ford Canada that employees in Oakville
" are taken care of. "
" We hope that Ford will do everything
they can to accelerate their timelines to
get employees back to work as quickly as
possible, " she said in an email.
BAD NEWS FOR SUPPLIERS
The lengthy delay is also trouble for parts
suppliers.
Brendan Sweeney, managing director
of the Trillium Network for Advanced
Manufacturing, which advocates on behalf
of Ontario's manufacturing industry, estimated
there are about four jobs at Canadian
Tier 1, 2 and 3 suppliers linked for every job
at the assembly site. Rough math puts the
number of people affected at 13,000, plus the
plant workers.
Not all of these supplier jobs are entirely
reliant on Ford - as many suppliers
build parts for multiple automakers
- but the production delay could put
a handful of " dedicated " mid- to largeTRANS-CANADA
NEWS 5,000 KILOMETRES
Association builds business
OF STORIES
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
case for hydrogen corridors
EDMONTON - A FUEL CELLpowered
Nikola transport truck
pulled an empty trailer in subzero
temperatures to Calgary from
Edmonton and back in January,
a 520-kilometre round trip, without
having to refill along the
way.
The next test in the Alberta
Motor Transport Association's
(AMTA) two-year trial to assess
hydrogen-powered fuel-cell electric
vehicles for fleet owners
will be to make the run while
As part of testing, a Nikola
hydrogen fuel cell truck will
pull a fully loaded trailer to
Calgary from Edmonton and
back. PHOTO: NIKOLA
loaded with cargo.
The eventual business case
for the technology is likely to
rely on yet-to-be-built refuelling
infrastructure, as the associasized
plants in jeopardy, Sweeney told
Automotive News Canada.
" They can be down for a year. Can they
be down for three years and expect the 150,
200, 300 people who work there to hang
around? I don't know. "
At the same time, the plant shutdown
was long anticipated. While the far longer
amount of downtime is hardly a positive
development, Sweeney said, it isn't " devastating. "
Flavio
Volpe, president of the Automotive
Parts Manufacturers' Association, agreed.
" What's important here is we know it's a
delay rather than a stopping of production
or a cancellation of the program. "
While the scheduling change might come
as a surprise to some, Volpe said, suppliers
have an intimate relationship with Ford
and have known from the outset that a 2025
start of production in Oakville would rely
on critical mineral supplies, technology
readiness and several other factors.
" This is a time when your partner asks
you to take a pause, " and suppliers are willing
to do that, as they have confidence in the
long-term prospects of the product, he said.
Meantime, because parts companies typically
have multiple automaker customers
for each plant, they should be able to shift
the " workforce that you want to retain into
your other customer work while you wait
for Ford to restructure its hand. " -ANC
Ford to focus
on a fully
hybrid lineup
by 2030
By MICHAEL MARTINEZ
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
FORD MOTOR CO. SAID APRIL 4 IT
is delaying plans for a new electric
pickup and three-row electric utilities
amid slowing demand for EVs.
Meanwhile, it aims to offer hybrid
variants on each gasoline-powered
vehicle in its lineup
by the end of
the decade.
[Suppliers] can be
down for a year.
Can they be down for
three years and expect
the 150, 200, 300
people who work there
to hang around?
I don't know. "
Brendan
Sweeney
Managing director,
Trillium Network
for Advanced
Manufacturing
Farley: " We
are committed
to scaling a
profitable EV
business, using
capital wisely
and bringing to
market the right
gas, hybrid and
fully electric
vehicles at the
right time. "
FILE PHOTO
" As the No. 2
EV brand in the
U.S. for the past
two years, we are
committed to scaling
a profitable EV
business, using
capital wisely and
bringing to market
the right gas,
hybrid and fully
electric vehicles
at the right time, "
Ford CEO Jim
Farley said in a
statement.
" Our breakthrough,
next-generation
EVs will
be new from the
ground up and
fully software enabled, with ever-improving
digital experiences and a multitude
of potential services. "
The automaker said it is postponing
production of a new electric pickup
at its under-construction Blue Oval
City plant in Tennessee from late 2025
to 2026. It is also delaying production
of three-row EV utilities at Oakville
Assembly to 2027 from 2025. However,
Ford plans to begin transforming its
Oakville plant in early May as originally
scheduled.
Ford said its Ohio Assembly Plant
will still build a new commercial EV,
with tooling installation set to begin in
2025. The company previously said the
vehicle would come " mid-decade. "
-ANC
- Michael Martinez is a reporter with
sibling publication Automotive News.
tion's only source of hydrogen
is in Edmonton.
" It's trying to see what can
be done on a commercial level
that these vehicles can operate
in the Canadian environment,
[that] we can prove
they can operate over distances, "
AMTA Acting President
Robert Harper told publication
Electric Autonomy Canada.
More than 70 provincial
and regional carriers across
Alberta are participating in
the study. - Joe Knycha
LeddarTech forges
two chipmaker deals
QUEBEC CITY - CANADIAN
autonomous vehicle technology
company LeddarTech
Holdings Inc. locked up a
pair of agreements in March
with high-profile microchip
companies Arm Holdings
plc and Renesas Electronics
Corp., as the company presses
ahead with software
instead of hardware as its
singular focus.
LeddarTech said the deal
with Arm, based in the U.K.,
will see the two companies
collaborate " with a view to
delivering " software and
chip technology to bring
drivers next-generation
advanced driver-assistance
systems. It did not specify
a timeline for a product
launch.
The agreement with the
U.S. subsidiary of Renesas,
based in Japan, is for two of
LeddarTech's legacy lidar
LeddarTech said it would continue
to pursue licencing deals with
strategic partners for its lidar
hardware. PHOTO: LEDDARTECH
products. The deal will see Renesas
take over sales of LeddarTech's
LCA2 and LCA3 programmable system-on-chip
product families that
are geared toward autonomous driving
applications.
LeddarTech said it would continue
to pursue licencing deals with
strategic partners for its lidar hardware
intellectual property.
- David Kennedy
Automotive News Canada - April 2024

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