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Northvolt, a private Swedish maker of batteries for electric vehicles subsidized through Volkswagen, BMW and Volvo, said it discovered possible firebombs under heavy machinery at a factory under a structure near Montreal in the most recent circular on sabotage attempts.
Police disposed of several Molotov cocktail-type devices on Monday morning and opened an investigation, the company’s co-founder and chief executive of the North American unit, Paolo Cerruti, told reporters at a press conference hours later, CBC and other media reported. The ignition formula was fundamental and late, Cerruti said.
“Thank God it didn’t work,” the CEO said. This was done with “the clear objective of harming our staff and likely slowing down our operations,” he said.
Northvolt has temporarily suspended finished work on the $7 billion task that is entering the road and sewer construction phase at the 170-hectare site. The plant is expected to start production by the end of 2026 to produce 60 gigawatt hours of batteries per year. enough to force 1 million vehicles, according to the company.
Quebec, thanks to government funding, mining-friendly policies and marketing, is competing with Ontario to supply major automakers with the battery metals they need for electric cars. Canada aims for all cars sold by 2035 to be zero-emission.
The town of Bécancour, near Trois Rivières, is home to Ford’s proposed $1. 2 billion battery fabric plant and General Motors’ planned $600 million cathode facility. They are connected via the St. Louis Road and Seaway. Lawrence to Ford, GM, Stellantis, and Toyota plants in southern Ontario.
Northvolt’s work faces opposition from environmentalists for perpetuating car culture and from the local Mohawk Council of Kahnawá:ke for construction on ecologically sensitive land and supposedly without consultation. The First Nation sued Quebec and the federal government in January to halt construction, saying they had failed to meet their consultation obligations. The Superior Court of Quebec rejected the injunction and work resumed.
That same month, Northvolt said nails and steel bars were driven into about 100 trees to make it more difficult to cut them down. An anonymous organization claimed his work in an anarchist network, the Canadian Press reported. In February, police investigated how the spiked mats were placed. in which a vehicle broke down.
And on Friday, a nonprofit contracted through Northvolt to cut down trees and use timber said on Facebook that it had been vandalized. It is the Wood Recovery Center.
Northvolt has completed tree removal from the site near McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand, approximately 30 km southeast of Montreal. It says it will plant 2. 5 trees for every tree felled. The entire task could create only 3,000 jobs. , according to the statement.
“What those others need is to scare us, to dissuade us from moving forward,” Cerruti said. “We are more determined than ever to keep going, to succeed. “