BASF plans to build a battery factory in Bécancour

German group BASF plans to set up a plant in Bécancour to manufacture battery cells for electric cars.

The world’s most important chemical group registered a month ago in the lobbyists’ registry for a “potential project in the Becancourt industrial park for a plan to produce battery equipment” and is already eyeing land south of Interstate 30.

No economic stakeholder in the Bécancour region wanted to confirm or comment on the possible arrival of BASF. “We’ve heard about it. I’ve heard about it, but we can’t say anything at the moment,” said Daniel Britton of Mobilité Électrique Canada.

After inviting the Minister of Economy and Innovation for comment, he, for his part, suggested that Quebec’s door be wide open for investors in transport electrification. “The work we are doing now is to convince foreign companies to come to Quebec and let us do the batteries,” Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon explained on Monday.

This battery cell production project is the fourth of its kind at Bécancour along with the Nemaska ​​Lithium, Nouveau Monde Graphite and British Volt projects. Legault government wants to establish a strong transportation electrification pole there.

“Becancourt, to be sure, having been severely damaged in recent years from an industrial point of view due to the transformation that is taking place at the level of industrialization, is an interesting pole for all sorts of reasons. First, because there is an industrial area that is very imposing”, noted Daniel Britton.

However, nothing is known about the size of the plant that BASF is willing to build, the investment required, or the number of jobs that will be created.