This new factory will be a joint venture with Samsung SDI
The automaker targets an initial annual production capacity of 23 GWh
The factory will begin operating in 2025, about the same time Stellantis plans to introduce a few of its electric models
Stellantis announced it will invest $2.5 billion to build and operate a new battery factory in the United States with the help of Samsung SDI, a major supplier of batteries for electric vehicles.
The American branch of the international conglomerate is late to the electrification game, since it currently doesn’t have an EV to sell customers in the United States and Canada.
This will change in the coming years however, since Stellantis is working on a number of electric vehicles for all of its brands, which include Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler.
The new factory will break ground later this year in the Kokomo region of Indiana, a central location between the automaker’s assembly plants in Michigan and Ohio.
Ram 1500 EV | Photo: Ram
When it will open in 2025, it is expected to have an annual output of around 23 GWh, but this number will grow over the years to accommodate the increasing production of EVs that will lead to the automaker’s goal of selling 5 million EVs per year by the end of the decade.
Since the first American EVs from Stellantis will arrive in 2024, the early models are likely to be supplied by another battery factory that has been announced by the company, this time in Ontario, which will be ready for production a year earlier.
As of now, the electric vehicles that are expected from the Stellantis brand’s include a Ram 1500 EV to compete with the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Chevrolet Silverado EV, an electric Promaster delivery and a Jeep Wrangler EV, as well as another smaller SUV. Dodge will see the arrival of a new electric Muscle Car and the Charger and Challenger are expected to abandon combustion engines as well. In addition, Chrysler has already shown the Airflow concept, which will arrive in 2025 as a competitor to the Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Tesla Model Y.
In Europe, the automaker’s electrification program is moving quicker, since the Peugeot and Citroën brands already have a few EVs on offer.
Chrysler Airflow Concept | Photo: Stellantis
