Three factories will receive investments to produce electric drive modules.
Production is expected to start in the third quarter of 2024.
The company wants to have 50% of its sales in North America be electric vehicles in 2030.
Stellantis announced a large investment package to support the manufacturing of EV components in Indiana yesterday.
The automaker has yet to offer any electric vehicles in North America but it wants to remedy this situation by investing heavily in order to have 25 electric vehicles to offer by 2030, which should account for 50% of its sales by then.
In addition to its battery joint venture with Samsung, Stellantis will need to build its own electric motors and gearboxes, which is what this most recent announcement addresses.
Indeed, the company will invest $155 million into three Indiana factories to support the production of electric drive units (EDM) which include a motor and a gearbox, as well as all of the necessary electronic control modules.
According to Stellantis, these EDMs will increase the performance and efficiency of the vehicles built on the STLA Large and STLA Frame platforms on which they will be used, giving both a range of up to 500 miles (800 kilometres).
The three factories which will be part of the investment are the Kokomo Casting Plant where the gearbox cover will be made, the Kokomo Transmission Plant where the same cover will be machined, and the Indiana Transmission Plant (also in Kokomo) where the gears will be machined and where final assembly will take place.
Electric Drive Module | Photo: Stellantis
This new manufacturing operation will account for 265 employees out of the more than 7,000 who currently work in all three facilities. Since the company will continue producing gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles in the coming years, these other jobs will likely be retained as well.
This latest investment pushes the total Stellantis has invested in Indiana up to $3.3 billion since 2020, all with the goal of advancing electrification.
Production at these facilities will start in the third quarter of 2024, which means that the EDMs produced in Indiana will not be used in the initial production run of the Ram 1500 REV or the upcoming Jeep EV since these models will arrive in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
