Volkswagen Group battery unit PowerCo has begun hiring for hundreds of job openings at its $7-billion battery cell manufacturing plant planned for Ontario, shrugging off the threat posed to the big-ticket investment by U.S. tariffs.

PowerCo Canada said its first major recruitment drive that launched Aug. 6 focuses on a wide range of roles, including chemists, engineers, sustainability experts and IT professionals. It comes as the company prepares to start construction on the site in St. Thomas, midway between Toronto and Windsor.

“This recruitment campaign is a pivotal step forward as we move closer to breaking ground on what will be Canada’s largest [electric-vehicle] facility once completed,” said Norman Wickboldt, chief human resources officer at PowerCo Canada, in a release.

How and why Volkswagen picked Canada for its $7B EV battery plant

The initial phase of hiring covers hundreds of positions, for which PowerCo said it will prioritize local hiring, when possible. The company plans to support its recruitment efforts with a multi-channel, province-wide advertising blitz that will roll out over the next few months.

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PowerCo Canada already has more than 200 staff working out of its office in St. Thomas. The battery plant is expected to create up to 3,000 direct jobs once ramped up to full capacity.

The hiring campaign and new timeline for construction follow months of relative uncertainty for what is expected to become Canada’s largest single automotive investment.

PowerCo chose St. Thomas to build its sole North American battery plant in March 2023. It initially planned to start construction on its roughly 350-acre (140 hectare) site in fall 2024. But while crews recently completed a 1,100-space parking lot for future employees and have advanced a flurry of related road, rail, water and electrical upgrades over the past year, work on the plant itself has yet to begin.

U.S. tariffs and slowing growth in EV adoption, meantime, have pushed other automakers such as Honda to put their Canadian EV supply chain projects on hold, casting doubt on PowerCo’s plans.

Top VW Group officials said in March that U.S. tariffs on Canadian exports present a risk to the St. Thomas plant, which will build battery cells for Volkswagen assembly plants in the United States. Despite the evolving trade war, however, the company has continually reiterated its commitment to the Canadian project, citing the strong fundamentals of the long-term investment.

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Currently, Canadian-made auto components compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement are exempt from U.S. tariffs.

Still, the slower growth trajectory for the North American EV market has pushed PowerCo to adjust its ramp-up timeline at the plant. Originally, the first of the plant’s six production blocks was scheduled to begin battery output in 2027, with the five others coming online by mid-2028. The company remains on track to begin producing batteries in St. Thomas in 2027, but now plans to start output at each successive production block as EV demand picks up.