Stellantis Canada CEO says sale of Ontario battery plant was due to poor EV demand

Stellantis' recent pivot to hybrid vehicles is indicative of the more pragmatic approach the automaker is taking to the EV transition. Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images/Postmedia files

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Stellantis NV sold its stake in Canada’s first battery gigafactory in Windsor, Ont., for a token amount of $100 because it overestimated the pace of electric vehicle adoption here, says the head of its Canadian division.

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“We were way off on that,” Trevor Longley said at the Canadian International Autoshow in downtown Toronto, “and so we and many other automakers are making adjustments just to align our infrastructure to the demand cycle that’s happening, which is different than what we all anticipated a few years ago.”

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He said EVs account for a tiny percentage of Stellantis’ sales in Canada, describing it as a single-digit number, but he said the company still believes “electrification is the future” and predicted that EVs may constitute the majority of all new vehicles sold by the 2040s.

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Last week, Stellantis said it is taking a US$26-billion writedown on its EV investments and cancelling production of many models, which followed other automakers that took similar writedowns on EVs.

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It also sold its 49 per cent stake in its battery factory in Windsor for US$100 to its joint-venture partner, South Korea-based LG Energy Solution Ltd. The factory had cost an estimated US$5-billion-plus to construct, although Korean securities filings pegged Stellantis’ contribution at US$980 million.

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Longley declined to comment on the company’s total investment in the battery plant.

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The Windsor facility started commercial production last year, but in the face of plummeting EV sales in Canada — which declined to less than 10 per cent throughout much of 2025 from around 18 per cent in late 2024 — the plant pivoted to making batteries for energy storage systems.

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Such batteries are stationary and can be used to capture and deploy energy from intermittent sources such as solar and wind power.

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At the auto show, Stellantis introduced its first-ever conventional hybrid Jeep Cherokee, which is powered by an internal combustion engine but with an onboard battery to improve gas mileage. Longley called it indicative of the more pragmatic approach Stellantis is taking to the EV transition, including a focus on affordability.

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“We’re shifting to solutions that consumers are more interested in,” he said.

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Nonetheless, he said Stellantis would also introduce the RAM range-extended pickup, an EV that introduces a new hybrid technology: an internal combustion engine that acts as a battery charger.

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“This is what we see as the future of electrification, at least in the near term,” Longley said.

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That model serves the needs of consumers who want a pickup truck that competes on gas mileage and what he characterized as “best-in-class” towing capacity.

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In Europe, Longley said EV sales constitute a much larger percentage of Stellantis’ overall vehicle sales. It has a joint-venture partnership there with Chinese EV maker Leapmotor International BV.