Jeep-parent Stellantis has inaugurated a new electric vehicle battery plant in Europe with Mercedes-Benz, bringing its global EV plans closer to reality.
The plant in Billy-Berclau Douvrin in northern France is expected to be operational before the end of this year and is the first of three European battery plants — the company has also committed to a plant in Termoli, Italy — organized through the Automotive Cells Co. joint venture made up of the two automakers and TotalEnergies.
Stellantis’ global plans also include at least two plants already announced in North America in Kokomo, Indiana, and Windsor, Ontario, although Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares reportedly told journalists in France that up to two additional large facilities are needed in the United States alone, according to Reuters.
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Tavares said the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 “had created ‘very favorable’ investment conditions” in the United States, the news service reported, highlighting the significance of production incentives tied to the act.
While that might be good news for future EV-related production in the United States, the impact of those potential incentives is causing grief in Canada, where the future of Stellantis’ joint venture battery plant with LG Energy Solution in Windsor is up in the air.
Construction related to battery module production at the almost $4 billion NextStar plant has been halted for weeks as Stellantis, which also owns the Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat brands, and Canadian government officials negotiate subsidies. The issue has pitted the Canadian federal government against the provincial government in Ontario, which has been pushed to provide more funds for the deal.
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As this has played out, Unifor, the union representing Canadian autoworkers, has been urging a resolution to the impasse, noting in a statement Monday that the situation is a cause for concern. The plant is expected to create 2,500 jobs along with significant spinoff impacts, with production planned for the first quarter of next year. But the public back and forth debate over the level of subsidies is causing increasing anxiety for Canadian auto interests.
“This facility, heralded as Canada’s first ‘gigafactory,’ is a cornerstone for economic activity among material suppliers and assembly facilities. NextStar will serve as a lynchpin for battery supply to Stellantis’ vehicle assembly plants in Brampton and Windsor, supporting the transition of thousands of Unifor members’ jobs in the coming years,” according to the statement from the Unifor Auto Council.
A Stellantis spokeswoman on Tuesday said there was no update to report. The company previously said it was asking “that the Canadian government keep its commitments in relation to what was agreed last February and which led us to continue construction work of the gigafactory in Windsor. This uncertainty is unfair to our Canadian employees, as well as toward Stellantis and LGES investments.”
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Unifor has said the company wants the Canadian government to match a $9.8 billion ($13.2 billion Canadian) investment being made in Volkswagen’s planned EV battery cell plant in St. Thomas, Ontario.
Whether states like Michigan could try to benefit from a potential failure of the Canadians to finalize the Windsor EV plant deal is unknown.
Bobby Leddy, a spokesperson for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, did not directly answer a question recently about whether the state was in talks with Stellantis about the Windsor plant. Instead, he provided a statement, reading in part that “we are partnering with leaders in the legislature to compete for every job and every dollar of investment to make sure Michigan is the number one choice for businesses when they are looking to create good-paying jobs and investment.”
Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber.