Stellantis plans to build an EV battery plant in the US

© 2022 Stellantis

The parent company of Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler wants to build an electric vehicle battery factory in the US. The news came out of an announcement Wednesday that the automaker would invest $4.1 billion on a new battery facility in Canada.

The first of two planned battery plants will be located in Windsor, Ontario, and will be part of the joint venture between the two companies. Construction on the plant is expected to start later this year, with operations expected to start in the first quarter of 2024.

At the event announcing the Windsor facility, officials said that a second plant would be built in the US. A battery factory in North America is being planned by the two companies. The location of the second factory will be announced soon.

The company said it wants to sell 5 million electric vehicles by the year 2030. EV versions of the Dodge Ram 1500 and an electric muscle car are included in the plan that the company announced last year. The Chrysler Airflow concept was previewed earlier this year.

The need to expand battery manufacturing capacity is growing as the auto industry shifts to electrification. GlobalData predicts that global battery production will grow from 95.3GWh in 2020 to 410.5GWh in 2024.

The new Windsor factory will be able to produce 45 gigawatt-hours a year. By comparison, Ford said its three new battery plants will enable 129 gigahertz a year of production capacity. Volkswagen is aiming to have six battery cell production plants in Europe by the year 2030, with four of them in the US, while General GM is planning four new battery factories in the US for a total annual capacity of 140GWh.

The company's first battery factory in Berlin will eventually produce 250GWh, which is roughly equivalent to the current world battery cell production capacity.