NextStar 'full speed ahead' with Ontario EV battery production amid Trump tariff uncertainty
Company targets battery cell production by July. Modules started being made last month
Windsor, Ont.,'s massive electric vehicle battery plant expects to start producing cells by July — amid uncertainty surrounding possible automotive-related tariffs imposed by the U.S., as threatened by Donald Trump during his election campaign.
According to NextStar's chief operating officer Joe Araujo, things remain "full speed ahead."
"Our two parent companies, Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions have had relationships with both the governments of the United States and here in Canada, and they'll continue to collaborate with the leaders of those two countries," he told CBC News.
Araujo says they're also not worried about jobs being affected by the shift in U.S. government.
"There's no concern from our end. By the end of next year, we'll have everything in place to run."
In October, the EV battery plant announced it had begun module production at the southwestern Ontario factory — labelling it as a "pivotal landmark" for its operations.
Modules are groups of battery cells. The cells themselves are currently being shipped in from Poland but by next summer they're expected to also be produced in-house in Windsor.
"In July of 2025 we will be producing cells which go into those modules," said Araujo.
He says the modules currently being produced in Windsor remain in their "launch phase," and are being delivered to Stellantis assembly lines across North America.
"They're flexible for any vehicle that we build."
Eventually, he says, their modules will also end up going to the Windsor assembly plant.
Araujo says he expects Stellantis to inform the public what plants are using the modules "when the timing is right."
The Windsor EV battery factory is expected to be physically complete by mid-2025, according to Arajuo. Equipment will continue to be installed in phases.
So far, he says, roughly 570 people have been hired across a range of mainly engineering and technician positions. And that number is expected to grow to more than 600 as the calendar flips into the new year.
"We're ramping up for cell production next year."
"We've got extensive hiring that's going to take place for the first quarter of next year to support the cell production."
The company has promised to eventually hire around 2,500 workers for the factory — 2,000 by the end of 2025, then the remaining 500 or so in the first quarter of 2026, says Araujo.
"We're still tracking to our original schedule [of full production by late 2025]. Everything's on time right now. And the hiring will support that. That's the schedule that we've got in place right now."
Araujo says he believes the demand for the electric vehicles will continue to build as time ticks on like "any other new technology."
"Electrification is coming and it's going to take consumers a while to get used to it, just like we had to get used to gas powered vehicles way back when."
Should Canada worry about auto Trump tariffs?
North American automotive analyst Joe McCabe — with AutoForecast Solutions — isn't convinced Canada has a lot to worry about when it comes to possible auto-related tariffs imposed by Trump's administration.
"I don't think Canada is going to be necessarily the crosshairs on this one," he said, adding that he thinks it will be Mexico.
In terms of a relationship with the U.S. and Canada, McCabe says he thinks it remains "very strong."
"When U.S. puts a policy in, 24 hours later the Canadian government puts a policy in in terms of tariffs. So we're all sort of on the same page and wavelength when it comes to the China impact. We believe the [Windsor] plant is safe in that perspective."
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Tony Haddad says it's too "early in the game" to try and determine what the U.S. president-elect is contemplating following election tariff threats — including here in Canada.
The interim CEO for the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce says he isn't sure if campaign comments will end up finding their way into reality and implemented.
"I'd like to think that given the quantum of investment and the direction that that the auto industry is going, that the battery plant and a lot of the initiatives that they're setting out to do are going to be continuing," said Haddad.
However, according to Haddad, he says it remains to be seen if any changes are going to be necessary.
"I think that's going to be natural, that there's greater access to charging stations in various locations, not just in the mainstream but off the beaten path as well."
With files from Dale Molnar