Watch Live: Stellantis announces $3.4-billion investment in Ontario plants

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Inspector Frank Calzavara is shown with a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid in velvet red in the 'final car' area of ​​FCA Canada's Windsor Assembly Plant.
Inspector Frank Calzavara is shown with a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid in velvet red in the ‘final car’ area of ​​FCA Canada’s Windsor Assembly Plant. Photo by Nick Brancaccio /Windsor Star

Stellantis ensured the future of its Ontario production plants in Windsor and Brampton by announcing it was investing $3.4 billion to retool the two facilities to produce electric vehicles.

In making the announcement Monday at the company’s Automotive Research and Development Center in Windsor, Stellantis’s Chief Operating Officer for North America Mark Stewart also confirmed that both plants would become three-shift operations once retooling is complete.

The federal and provincial governments, who were represented at the announcement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and other key ministers, are also contributing hundreds of millions of dollars as part of plans to green the economy through the next generation of automobiles.

“The magic number is three today as in three shifts in Windsor and Brampton,” said federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne.

“Stellantis is investing $3.4 billion, the federal government will contribute $529 million with Ontario contributing something similar.”

Champagne said the final number of jobs will be determined once the plants are retooled. He added Stellantis will put two new electric flex platforms in Windsor and one in Brampton.

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The platforms in Windsor are expected to be in addition to keeping Pacifica minivan production. The Pacifica is expected to undergo a revamp to make it a battery electric vehicle. Currently, it is offered as a gas-powered or plug-in hybrid vehicle.

In addition, Stellantis will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to expand its Windsor Automotive Research and Development Centre. The company will make Windsor research a key center for its electric platform and battery research.

“We have reshaped the future of the auto sector in Canada,” Champagne said.

In the last round of contract negotiations in 2020, the company had committed to spending up to $1.5 billion on readying Windsor for battery electric and hybrid vehicle production.

At that time it also committed $50 million to Brampton for new derivatives of the firm’s old LX platform used to produce the Dodge Challenger, Charger and Chrysler 300. With no product commitments beyond 2023 and rumors that Stellantis is going to move its electrified versions of the Charger and Challenger to Belleville, Illinois, the announcement breathes new life into the facility.

Combined with March’s announcement of Stellantis/LG Energy Solutions $5-billion battery plant in Windsor, the automaker’s first in North America, Ontario has shifted from a marginal player in the company’s future plans to a key cog.

“These announcements are transformative for our community,” said Windsor-Tecumseh Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk. “These investments have large multiplier effects.

“Think of the thousands of autoworkers who ground it out for the last 10 years in times of such uncertainty. This is their day.”

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