Ottawa has signed a deal with South Korea that could see Korean automakers build EVs within Canada.
Federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly today announced the creation of a forum on industrial collaboration between Canada and South Korea. The goals will be to create opportunities to assemble electric vehicles on Canadian soil and to generally increase the presence of Korean automakers here.
Vehicles made by Korean automakers, notably Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, all part of the Hyundai Group), accounted for 12 percent of all vehicles sold in Canada in 2024. Obviously, the Korean government and its country’s automakers will be looking to increase that market share. Minister Joly iterated that the forum and new deals that arise from it will help further develop the Canadian auto manufacturing sector.
For now, however, the announcement was accompanied by no details, including any timelines on when and where Korean automakers might actually set up shop in Canada. None currently builds any vehicles here, and vehicles built by Hyundai and Kia at their U.S. plants face stiff retaliatory tariffs when imported into Canada. In some cases, carmakers have stopped the importation of those models into Canada for varying lengths of time.