St. Thomas mayor and delegates visit Volkswagen battery plant in Germany

It’s a milestone week for the future of the Volkswagen PowerCo Battery plant in St. Thomas.

“This is the first chance that I’ve had to come and meet the folks from Volkswagen and PowerCo in Germany,” said St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston, speaking to CTV News from his hotel in Salzgitter, Germany.

The mayor is in the country, along with St. Thomas City Manager Sandra Datars Bere and St. Thomas Economic Development Corporation CEO Sean Dyke.

The team will be touring the Volkswagen battery production plant in the German city.

They’re also meeting with the heads of Volkswagen and its battery manufacturer subsidiary PowerCo.

It follows an event in St. Thomas on Monday when company officials toured the site of the future gigafactory, which is now ready for groundbreaking.

According to a company news release, Sebastian Wolf, chief operations officer of PowerCo SE, said at a private event on site, "We are fully on track. Site preparation, the first phase of [the] gigafactory [in] St. Thomas has been completed. We are now ready for the next stage on our path to the sustainable and responsible production of battery cells. PowerCo will be a reliable partner for the people in St. Thomas and Ontario.”

Preston said he’s getting a first hand look at what we can expect when the plant in St. Thomas gets further along.

“[Thursday] morning, we see the factory in Salzgitter that’s been converted into the first of the EV battery factories. Anxious to see what that looks like because that’ll be one small version of what we’re building in St. Thomas. But also meeting with the president of Volkswagen, the president of PowerCo. And also speaking at a meeting tomorrow of the PowerCo employees,” said Preston.

PowerCo has also set up a new office in downtown St. Thomas.