“But if you ask me the question about the timetable, can it change by a few months? Maybe,” François-Philippe Champagne said.
Possible changes in the schedule for the Northvolt project east of Montreal do not worry the federal minister of innovation, science and industry, François-Philippe Champagne.
On a scale of one to 10, Champagne’s level of confidence is “10 on the fact that the factory will be built,” he said Thursday while making an announcement on semiconductor marketing in Montreal.
“But if you ask me the question about the timetable, can it change by a few months? Maybe.” Still, “this is normal in disruptive technologies,” he said.
“I don’t know the exact delay that there could be, I speak in the conditional, because there is no decision yet made on the basis of the information that I have,” Champagne added.
The company has fallen behind schedule in the construction of its mega-factory in the Scandinavian country.
Therrien assured that Northvolt still wants to “play a central role in the energy transition by manufacturing the greenest batteries in the world here.”
The mega-factory project straddling St-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville is expected to cost $7 billion.