Northvolt battery factory site in Canada gets sabotaged
Northvolt’s planned site for a new battery factory site in Canada has been sabotaged by a group of activists.
Last year, it was announced that Northvolt, a Swedish battery manufacturer known for building large battery cell factories in Europe, would enter the North American market with a new 30 GWh battery factory in Quebec, Canada.
The factory is planned at a site between Mcmasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand, on the south shore of Montreal.
The project has received massive government support with the Quebec government contributing $2.9 billion and the federal government contributing $4.4 billion to the project.
This has resulted in significant blowback.
The Centre québécois du droit de l’environnement (CQDE) has filed an injunction to stop the project over “concerns for the biodiversity” at the site, which they believe is an “habitat for many threatened or vulnerable animal species”.
The injunction process was started last week as Northvolt began removing trees at the site.
The first audience was scheduled for this morning, but it was pushed to tomorrow.
Separately, a group of activists sabotaged the site of the upcoming factory last night. They installed steel bars and nails in trees to prevent deforestation machines from working at the site. Northvolt confirmed the sabotage.
Quebec publication La Presse said that it received an anonymous message from the people behind the sabotage. They claim to have “armed the forest” to protect itself in a way that won’t damage it.
They wrote:
“While having minimal impact on tree health, these metal objects hinder the cutting of trees by heavy machinery.”
As for the reason behind the act of sabotage, the group seems to share the concerns of the environmental group that went through the legal process, but they also denounce the Quebec government’s contribution to the project, which they see as supporting “automobile culture” while public transport in the region is having funding issues.
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China just laid out a plan to roll out over 100,000 ultra-fast EV charging stations by 2027 – and they’ll all be open to the public.
The National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) joint notice, issued on Monday, asks local authorities to put together construction plans for highway service areas and prioritize the ones that see 40% or more usage during holiday travel rushes.
The NDRC notes that China’s ultra-fast EV charging infrastructure needs upgrading as more 800V EVs hit the road. Those high-voltage platforms can handle super-fast charging in as little as 10 to 30 minutes, but only if the charging hardware is up to speed.
China had 31.4 million EVs on the road at the end of 2024 – nearly 9% of the country’s total vehicle fleet. But charging access is still catching up. As of May 2025, there were 14.4 million charging points, or roughly 1 for every 2.2 EVs.
To keep the grid running smoothly, China wants new chargers to be smart, with dynamic pricing to incentivize off-peak charging and solar and storage to power the charging stations.
To make the business side work, the government is pushing for 10-year leases for charging station operators, and it’s backing the buildout with local government bonds.
The NDRC emphasized that the DC fast chargers built will be open to the public. This is a big deal because a lot of fast chargers in China aren’t. For example, BYD’s new megawatt chargers aren’t open to third-party vehicles.
As of September 2024, China had expanded its charging infrastructure to 11.4 million EV chargers, but only 3.3 million were public.
Read more: California now has nearly 50% more EV chargers than gas nozzles
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Tesla is starting to experience some consequences for misleading Full Self Driving customers – at least that’s the finding of one arbitration ruling that has Tesla refunding one customer $10,000 plus legal fees for failing to deliver on their promises. Find out more on today’s legally challenging episode of Quick Charge!
An arbitration “court” found that Tesla misled customers with its Full Self Driving product, and has now been forced to refund at least one person’s $10,000 payment (plus legal fees) for the not-quite autonomous driving software. France, too, is piling on claims of deceptive business practices – but there’s some good news for FSD fans! If you’re still willing to pay for it, Tesla will thrown in 0% financing on a brand new Cybertruck.
Check out the relevant links, below, to learn more.
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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
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