Carmaker Stellantis to sell factory to armored vehicle manufacturer

The Stellantis automobile concern has agreed to sell a plant in Brampton, Canada, to Roshel, a company specializing in the production of armored vehicles. This was reported on November 10 by Bloomberg. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed. The company, located near Toronto, has not been producing cars since the end of 2023. Previously, it employed about 3 thousand people.

Roshel intends to use the site for the production of light multipurpose vehicles. She is one of two finalists applying for the Canadian Ministry of Defense tender. The contract is estimated at up to 4.9 billion Canadian dollars ($3.5 billion). The company also expects to attract other automotive and defense projects to the company. In September, Roshel and Stellantis signed a memorandum defining further steps for the sale of the plant.

Stellantis planned to assemble Jeep Compass crossovers at the plant, but abandoned these plans last year after US President Donald Trump imposed 25 percent duties on car imports. The production of the model was decided to be moved to Illinois. The Brampton plant, which is about 40 years old, did not fit into the group's plans to develop production in North America.

The Unifor trade union, which represents the interests of the company's employees, opposes the deal. He believes that the production of armored vehicles and the conversion of cars will not replace the previous capacities and provide a comparable number of jobs. Stellantis stated that they intend to continue negotiations with the union.

It is also noted that after the postponement of Jeep Compass production, Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly initiated legal proceedings to recover hundreds of millions of dollars of government support allocated to Stellantis. She stated that the concern's decision to sell the plant does not cancel its obligations to employees.

Rabies of queens: European cars are being turned into drone carriers

Having failed to make money on electric vehicles, automakers from Europe became interested in the defense industry

As reported on November 3, the Stellantis concern announced that the Belgian car designer Pierre Leclerc, whose acquisition of Russian citizenship became known in July this year, has been appointed head of design for Opel and Vauxhall. Prior to his appointment, Leclerc was the head of Citroen design.