Ontario mayor remains hopeful Hondas EV plant will be built, despite delay [Video]

The mayor of an Ontario municipality set to be the home for Honda’s now-postponed $15-billion electric-vehicle project said Tuesday he is not giving up hope on the plant.

New Tecumseth Mayor Richard Norcross said he is disappointed with Honda’s decision but he will continue to advocate for the project, which was expected to create about a thousand jobs.

“I’m hoping we can help,” he said in an interview.

“We’re gonna do everything we can to help, and we will lobby where we have to lobby, and we will do what we can do to keep the plant going forward.”

Honda said it is delaying its scale-up in the community of Alliston, which includes a battery plant and retooled vehicle assembly line, for about two years as it monitors market conditions.

It’s the biggest project delay so far in Canada blamed on a weakened outlook for electric-vehicle sales, and it comes as …