Stellantis starts hiring at Ontario EV battery plant

Now that an ugly, public financial dispute with the federal government is behind it, NextStar Energy, a joint venture between Stellantis and LG Energy Solution, has started the process of hiring thousands of people at its $5-billion electric-vehicle battery plant in Windsor, Ont.

NextStar on July 31 launched the recruitment of 130 people, including 30 white-collar workers who will “launch and grow the business operations,” the company said in a statement. The other 100 will be a core team of production engineers and technicians.

Those engineers and technicians will begin an international training program in October, learning how to run a large-scale lithium-ion battery plant at existing plants in Poland, China and South Korea, NextStar said.

"Employees are the most important asset in building lithium-ion batteries, and we plan to invest significantly in making sure that our employees are ready to manage the complicated process and equipment," Danies Lee, CEO of NextStar Energy, said in the statement. 

The company said the first team of 130 people “will also be responsible for “training the thousands of employees who will be hired from now until 2025.”

Production of EV battery modules is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2024. NextStar plans to have 2,500 employees in place to allow for the full-scale production of EV battery modules, electrodes and cells beginning in early 2025.

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NextStar halted some construction on the site May 15, saying the Canadian government was not living up to subsidy commitments that would level the playing field between Canada and the United States. All work restarted July 5 after Ottawa and Ontario struck an intergovernmental accord to fund tax credits worth US$35 for each kWh of battery cells produced, plus US$10 per kWh of modules.

Stellantis could receive incentives worth up to $15 billion in total over the course of 10 years.

Mark Stewart, COO for Stellantis North America, recently said the company is working “night and day” to get construction back on track.

The plant aims to have an annual production capacity in excess of 45 gigawatt hours. The factory has the potential to make enough batteries for more than 400,000 vehicles a year. 

NextStar says the plant’s output will meet “a significant portion of Stellantis' electric vehicle production requirements in North America.”

The plant will cover 4.5 million square feet (418,000 square metres), meaning that the Rogers Centre could fit inside it 17 times over.

The lithium-ion battery plant was first announced in March 2022.