Volkswagen considering battery cell factory in Ontario -Handelsblatt

BERLIN (Reuters) -Volkswagen is looking at setting up a battery cell factory in Ontario, Germany’s Handelsblatt business daily reported on Tuesday, adding the Canadian province had offered investments and other incentives.

Five entries from this month are listed in a lobby register of the province for Volkswagen, including one that mentions Volkswagen Chief Executive Oliver Blume by name, the report said, citing the documents.

Reuters independently verified the entries, made on the website lobbyist.oico.on.ca.

A Volkswagen spokesperson did not want to comment on the Handelsblatt report and said a decision on the location of a North American factory had not yet been made.

The carmaker confirmed in December it was searching for a site for a battery cell plant in North America, and Blume said at the time said that Canada was “one logical option”.

The documents seen by Handelsblatt said Ontario wanted to be “considered in competition with other locations”.

(Reporting by Jan C Schwartz, Victoria Waldersee and Steve Scherer; writing by Rachel More; editing by Miranda Murray and Mark Potter)