Magna Fires On All Cylinders With Pan-Ontario Investment

ven as the all-Canada-made Project Arrow EV grabbed headlines with its debut early this year (see p. 32), a global Canadian automotive power continues to flex across the entire automotive ecosystem. Based in Aurora, Ontario, Magna is a perennial Fortune Global 500 company and the largest automobile parts manufacturer in North America by sales of original equipment parts. It’s getting larger by the day.

In mid-February, the company announced it is investing more than C$470 million* to expand its operations at six locations across Ontario. The growth includes a new $265 million, 560-job battery enclosures facility in Brampton to support the Ford F-150 Lightning and future OEM programs. The expansions follow new business awards from various automakers in key product areas, the company said, and are supported by $23.6 million in grants from the Ontario government to bring additional high-quality jobs to the region with ongoing training and development programs.

“Magna’s roots in Ontario run deep, and we are excited about opening a new facility dedicated to a strategic electrification product,” said Magna Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Eric Wilds. “The Brampton facility, coupled with investment and growth in five existing Ontario facilities, allows Magna to keep up with customer demands across several product areas.”

The other five locations benefiting from the overall investment include:

Guelph: Magna is adding e-coat, molding and welding capacity and 175 new jobs to its exteriors plant to support new EV production.

Belleville: Magna’s lighting plant is adding to its capabilities for printed circuit board assemblies and will add up to 100 new jobs.

Newmarket: Magna’s mechatronics facility (which produces vehicle access systems including side door latches, electronic control units, and power systems) is growing its business and expects approximately 75 new jobs.

Windsor: Magna’s mechatronics plant has added new business for powered aluminum tonneau covers and is planning to add roughly 110 new jobs.

Penetanguishene: Magna’s mechatronics facility is growing its tailgate hinges production and planning to add more than 15 new jobs.

Magna has 49 manufacturing facilities with more than 18,500 employees throughout Canada. Site Selection’s Conway Projects Database has tracked nearly 40 facility investments by Magna divisions since 2015. Since October 2022, the pace has ratcheted up with projects that include: a 300-job safety and driver assistance engineering expansion in Timisoara, Romania; a new seating manufacturing JV in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China; a new exterior mirror systems plant in Struga, North Macedonia, that is expected to employ up to 1,000 people by the end of 2024; and a new $120 million e-mobility engineering center in Bengaluru, India, that expects to employ 1,000 engineers and technical experts by the end of 2023 with capacity to add 250 more as needed.

Another investment of more than $500 million is supporting the expansion of operations in three Southeast Michigan locations: Shelby Township (powertrain), Detroit (seating) and St. Clair where — as in Brampton — battery enclosures will be manufactured.

The 740,000-sq.-ft. expansion to Magna’s existing facility in St. Clair is located a three-hour drive southwest of Brampton in a town on the U.S.-Canada border. 

*All dollar amounts in this article are in Canadian dollars. On February 16 the exchange rate was C$1 = US$0.7429.