(04-26-2024, 12:19 PM)SF22 Wrote: Well, it's apparently not going to be an EV plant. Does that put us back to square one on speculating the end result? https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...c505f.html
I think we should just treat it based on what we know: that the region wants to take a large 700 acre plot of land and invite people to use it, whether that means a single large company or numerous ones. I still can't figure out where the whole "it's for a huge EV plant or maybe EV batteries" thing even came from, it just sort of appeared on social media one day and then it spiralled out of control with all sorts of speculation and conspiracy theories about secretive backhand deals. Even the claim that it was going to be expropriated had no basis in reality from what I can tell, because the region has repeatedly said it planned to buy the land (whether or not they were planning to pay a fair price is irrelevant). It sort of made some sense given we sort of have experience with automotive industry here, but there was nothing specific ever said and anytime I ask online where this began, nobody seems to have a concrete answer.
At first I thought...okay, maybe it is for EVs? Maybe that's good? But now that it is known that it was never about that all along, I'm thinking maybe they just wanted to set aside a large swath of land that can be utilized over the next century to diversify our economy, by inviting in numerous different businesses to operate here. That makes a lot more sense when you think about it. The Bramm Yards project is similar in that the City of Kitchener has that modest plot of land directly downtown and a desire to utilize it in such a way that there can be a diversity of important businesses that operate there.
And when it comes to EVs...ehhhh. Established names like Tesla and General Motors are struggling with their EV segments with abysmal sales hitting them rather hard. A quick look at the stock price of newer companies like NIO, LCID, FRSN, RIVN, GOEV and countless more also demonstrate that EVs are, ultimately, still pieces of shit that very few people want. They're barely selling and these companies are barely able to keep the lights on. If we have the choice between handing 700 acres over to a large company or taking 700 acres, zoning it to be utilized for various uses and then letting the market demands dictate how they are used then the latter is probably the superior choice.
But with the way this has played out thanks to all this seemingly made up rhetoric about EV and coercing farmers off their land, we may have shot ourselves in the foot anyway. We are very talented at that.