Canada's Flo to close Quebec EV charger plant, lay off 80 across Canada, U.S.
'This decision reflects several challenging realities. Trade tensions, shifting political dynamics — particularly in the U.S. — and inconsistent policy signals around electric vehicles have made long-term planning extremely complex,' company CEO Louis Tremblay said in a statement.
The move was first reported by La Presse.
Flo, a Quebec City-based company founded in 2009, expanded to a second plant in Shawinigan in 2021 and added a U.S. production footprint in 2022 as strong government support on both sides of the border accelerated charger demand.
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But slow-to-materialize EV sales and political changes in Washington have since undercut the market.
The Trump administration in the United States froze funding for Washington's US $5-billion EV charging program in February, though faces a court battle with several states to resume payments. Government support for charging infrastructure in Canada remains robust, though the build out of charging networks across the country have lagged initial projections.
The closure of the Shawinigan plant is the latest in a series of setbacks that have rattled Canada's EV manufacturing ecosystem in the past year.
Flo's initial plant in Shawinigan's Grand-Mère sector and its U.S. production hub in Auburn Hills, Mich., will continue to operate. But Tremblay said the layoffs are part of a wider 'strategic pivot' that will focus the company primarily on charging network operations, not manufacturing. Flo operates about 100,000 public chargers across Canada and the United States.
Despite the shift in strategy, the company said it 'remains firmly committed' to supplying chargers for the residential market, with production and deliveries of home charging stations unaffected by the layoffs.
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