Ontario, Canada to become Stellantis EV hub

According to foreign media reports, Stellantis said it will invest $2.8 billion to revamp two assembly plants in Canadato prepare for the production ofelectric vehicles .

Image credit: Stellantis

Stellantis has announced that it will transform its factories in Windsor and Brampton into "flexible multi-energy vehicle assembly plants" and build two new research and development centres in Windsor focused on electric vehicles and battery technology.

The federal and Ontario governments will provide Stellantis with up to $398 million in funding for the project.Stellantis pledged in talks with the Unifor union to invest $1.1 billion to revamp the Windsor assembly plant, which currently makes Chrysler small vans.

Stellantis said the retooling of the Windsor plant would "diversify the plant's production to meet the growing consumer demand for low-emission vehicles by introducing pure electric or hybrid models on the production line".But the company has not disclosed which new models will be produced at the Windsor plant in the future.

A similar upgrade is due at Stellantis' Brampton assembly plant, which makes the Chrysler 300 sedan, Dodge Challenger and Charger.Stellantis revealed that it will install a flexible assembly line at the Brampton plant that will be able to produce both pure electric and hybrid vehicles.The modern plant will initially have anannual capacityof 200,000 vehicles, the company said.

On the research and development front, Stellantis said it would modernize its Automotive Research and Development Centre in Windsor by expanding and establishing two "competence centres"."The EV and Battery Pack Testing Competency Centre will make Ontario the company's main R&D centre for all stages of production, from design to development," the company said.

In addition to R&D, the new center will provide "local talent, universities, colleges and start-ups with opportunities to participate in the development of Ontario's electric vehicle ecosystem," Stellantis said.The centers will serve as the center of Stellantis' research and development operations in North America and "serve the company's global technology, process and product development needs," the company said.