Stellantis – the company that owns Jeep and Ram – and Samsung plan to spend $2.5 billion to build a battery plant in Kokomo, Ind., which...
Stellantis – the company that owns Jeep and Ram – and Samsung plan to spend $2.5 billion to build a battery plant in Kokomo, Ind., which is expected to create 1,400 jobs.
The joint venture is expected to begin production by 2025 and is intended to supply batteries for Jeeps, Ram trucks and other vehicles in North America. It’s the second such announcement from Stellantis, which has been much slower to introduce electric cars and trucks than other established automakers.
The company aims to sell five million electric vehicles by 2030. By the end of the decade, it hopes electric cars and trucks will account for all of its sales in Europe and half in North America. The new models will include a Dodge electric sports car, a Ram electric pickup truck and a Jeep electric sport utility vehicle.
Stellantis was born in 2021 from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and the French car manufacturer Peugeot. It is headed by Carlos Tavares, former general manager of Peugeot. In an effort to catch up with Tesla, the main maker of electric cars, the company will spend 30 billion euros ($32 billion) on electric vehicles by 2025, Mr Tavares said last year.
Chrysler has long had major operations in Kokomo and currently manufactures engines and transitions in the town, 60 miles north of Indianapolis.
In March, Stellantis announced that it would build a battery plant in Windsor, Ontario, in a joint venture with another battery company, LG Energy Solution. Stellantis currently manufactures minivans in Windsor.
Indiana offered Stellantis tax credits, scholarships and other economic incentives worth $186.5 million to land the new Kokomo plant.
Stellantis joins several other automakers in the race to build battery factories and introduce new electric models. Ford Motor is building two battery plants in Kentucky and a third in Tennessee, and has just started manufacturing an electric version of its F-150 pickup truck. General Motors plans to start making electric car batteries this summer at a new plant in Ohio, and has two more under construction in Tennessee and Michigan.
Hyundai, the South Korean automaker, said on Friday it would spend $5.5 billion on an electric vehicle and battery manufacturing complex near Savannah, Georgia, and plans to start production in 2025.
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