Tesla to open new battery manufacturing equipment factory in Canada

Tesla confirmed that it is going to open a new factory to build battery manufacturing equipment in Canada.

As we reported earlier this week, Tesla released a look into its growing presence in Canada, where it builds “machines that build the machine.”

It appears that the new video coincided with Tesla launching a new facility in the country.

Like the new Megafactory in California earlier this year, Tesla hasn’t made an official announcement about the new project, and the local mayor was the one to reveal it.

Frank Scarpitti, mayor of Markham, Ontario, made the announcement on Twitter:

The mayor wrote in the announcement about the new manufacturing facility:

I’m delighted to share that Tesla Canada is joining our already robust automotive and technology ecosystem by locating a manufacturing facility in the City of Markham. The facility will be the first branded Tesla Canada manufacturing facility in Canada and will produce state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment to be used at the Gigafactories located around the world in the production of batteries.

He didn’t reveal any details about the new factory other than it will produce “manufacturing equipment” and that it’s for the “production of batteries.”

That sounds like what Tesla was already doing with its team at Hibar.

In 2019, Tesla acquired Ontario-based Hibar Systems, a manufacturing equipment company that makes machines used in battery cell production.

Before Tesla took over, the company was based in Richmond Hill, Ontario, which is only a few minutes from Markham, where the new facility is going to be.

It sounds like Tesla might be expanding the team into a bigger facility in the next town over in the suburbs of Toronto.

The expansion coincides with Tesla’s need for battery manufacturing equipment ramping up significantly, as it’s looking to deploy large-scale battery cell production at several different facilities.

We just reported on Tesla taking delivery of new anode production equipment at Gigafactory Texas, and the automaker is also deploying battery cell production at Gigafactory Berlin.