PowerCo begins hiring blitz for positions at St. Thomas EV battery gigafactory

With initial production set to begin in 2027, PowerCo says it's launching a hiring blitz as it looks to fill hundreds of positions for its massive electric vehicle battery plant in St. Thomas.

The Volkswagen subsidiary announced Wednesday that it had begun a hiring campaign to fill positions for chemists, IT professionals, engineers, and sustainability experts, and would further expand recruitment in the coming months.

The gigafactory is anticipated to employ roughly 3,000 people and span up to 185,000 square metres when it becomes fully operational in northeast St. Thomas. It's also expected to help create as many as 30,000 indirect jobs.

"It's the gift that keeps on giving," said St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston in an interview with CBC News.

"What this will do with even jobs across Canada, certainly Northern Ontario and the Ring of Fire, certainly other areas of Canada, supplying the special ingredients that need to go into EV batteries."

PowerCo is pouring $7 billion in the gigafactory, which will be the German automaker's first EV battery plant in North America and have an annual production capacity of up to 90 GWh.

Batteries produced at the facility will go to vehicle assembly plants in the U.S.

Groundbreaking for the new plant is expected to take place in the next several weeks, according to a media statement provided by PowerCo.

"The industrial park we created that attracted PowerCo to St.Thomas continues to be developed," Preston said.

"Roadways, water, sewer, new electrical towers and a brand-new rail yard are all [finishing] construction, and the land the factory will go on has been all levelled and compacted, and we start pouring concrete this summer."

The new plant will bring "generational change," Preston said, and is an opportunity to help create manufacturing jobs of the future, and keep young workers from leaving the region.

It's also set to put increased demand on the local housing stock as the plant's workers begin to call the St. Thomas region home.

In neighbouring Central Elgin, its pending arrival has the municipality looking at redeveloping lands formerly home to the St. Thomas psychiatric hospital.

CBC News made several attempts to interview someone from PowerCo on Wednesday, but was told their spokesperson was unavailable.

In a statement, the company's Chief Human Resources Officer, Norman Wickboldt, said the hiring campaign was a "pivotal step forward."

"Electrified transportation is the future, and these jobs offer long-term opportunities for Canadians to be a part of an exciting and innovative clean energy industry," his statement said.

PowerCo has already hired around 200 people who are working out of an office in downtown St. Thomas, with plans to grow to 400 by the end of the year, Preston said.

"Almost every week I meet someone else new who's come to join the team, and many of them from St. Thomas, and many of them from London, and many from far afield."