With Tesla lobbying the federal government to perhaps build their next Gigafactory in Canada, the country’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne toured one of Tesla’s existing locations in Ontario today.
On Wednesday Champagne revealed that he was visiting Tesla Automation in Markham, a facility that opened last year and which creates manufacturing equipment used to produce batteries at the company’s Gigafactories.
In a short video posted to Twitter (below), Champagne said he wanted Canadians to know that “there is a piece of Canada in every Tesla,” a fact he only learned after visiting with employees and taking a Model Y on a test drive.
Champagne’s visit wasn’t just to get behind the wheel of a Model Y. He also explained in the video that he wanted to work with Tesla to strengthen their ties to Canada and help expand their supply chain to include more Canadian parts and for Canada to “be the green supplier of choice.”
Tesla has a growing presence in Canada outside of their retail and service locations, particularly in Ontario.
Along with the facility in Markham, Tesla also has a facility in nearby Richmond Hill, a location they took over after acquiring Hibar in 2019, a company that specializes in battery manufacturing.
Tesla also acquired Springpower last year, a company based in Mississauga that produces and manufactures electric vehicle batteries.
Then of course there is Tesla’s connection to Nova Scotia with their Advanced Battery Research Team, led by Jeff Dahn at Dalhousie University.
You can watch the video from Champagne below.
https://twitter.com/FP_Champagne/status/1559946434564296710
