{"id":894229,"date":"2026-09-13T13:12:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T13:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/894229\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T13:12:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T13:12:44","slug":"stellantis-armored-vehicle-maker-outline-brampton-plant-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/894229\/","title":{"rendered":"Stellantis, armored vehicle maker outline Brampton plant sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n September 11, 2026 4:00 PM, EDT<\/p>\n

\"Stellantis<\/p>\n

The Stellantis assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario. (Laura Proctor\/Bloomberg)<\/p>\n

Key Takeaways:\"Toggle
\nStellantis and Roshel signed a memorandum outlining steps toward selling the idled Brampton, Ontario, assembly plant.The factory employed about 3,000 union workers before production stopped in late 2023, with planned Jeep Compass production later scrapped amid U.S. tariffs.Roshel said it could reactivate the plant if it wins a Canadian military vehicle contract worth up to C$4.9 billion. <\/p>\n

Stellantis NV signed a memorandum with a Canadian armored vehicle manufacturer that outlines steps toward the sale of an idled car factory near Toronto \u2014 a move that represents yet another ripple effect of U.S. tariffs on the Canadian auto sector.\n \t <\/p>\n

Roshel Inc., which is headquartered near the Stellantis plant in Brampton, Ontario, is trying to get a Canadian military contract worth as much as C$4.9 billion to build light utility vehicles. The company has told Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s government it could reactivate the facility quickly if it lands that contract.\n \t \t\t<\/p>\n

Roshel CEO Roman Shimonov said his company is the only serious potential buyer for the facility and described the memorandum as the first step in a \u201cvery complicated\u201d process.\n \t <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a document that clearly specifies the plan, the responsibilities, the framework and everything else,\u201d Shimonov said.\n \t\t<\/p>\n

LouAnn Gosselin, a Stellantis spokesperson, confirmed the two companies have signed the document.\n \t <\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing consideration of a number of potential opportunities, Stellantis believes that Roshel represents a strong path to restoring sustainable operations at Brampton Assembly, preserving the site\u2019s strategic role in Canada\u2019s advanced manufacturing sector and helping to avoid a prolonged period of inactivity,\u201d Gosselin said in a statement.\n \t <\/p>\n

The Stellantis plant employed about 3,000 unionized workers when it was making vehicles, but it hasn\u2019t been in production since late 2023. A plan to build the Jeep Compass SUV there was scrapped<\/a> last year after President Donald Trump announced plans to impose tariffs<\/a> on foreign-made vehicles.\n \t <\/p>\n

The canceled production sparked a furious reaction from the Canadian government, which had given hundreds of millions of dollars in financial help to Stellantis. The automaker is currently at the bargaining table with Unifor, which represents the plant\u2019s workers.\u00a0\n \t <\/p>\n

\"RoadSigns\"\/<\/a>\n \t <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Arpan Podduturi of Samsara examines how AI, telematics and onboard cameras are converging to protect drivers and reduce risk.\u00a0Tune in above or by going to RoadSigns.ttnews.com<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\n \t <\/p>\n

Unifor said last month it\u2019s been informed Stellantis may close and sell the plant. The mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown, told Bloomberg News recently that his office has received a number of inquiries about the plant, including one from China\u2019s BYD Co<\/a>.\u00a0\n \t <\/p>\n

Gosselin said Stellantis has a 100-year history of operations in Canada and remains \u201ccommitted to supporting Canadian jobs, innovation and the long-term competitiveness of the country\u2019s automotive sector.\u201d\u00a0\n \t <\/p>\n

The company won\u2019t comment further due to the bargaining with Unifor, she said.\n \t <\/p>\n

On Sept. 11, the union said it had reached an \u201cimpasse\u201d in its Stellantis talks, citing the Brampton plant and conversations with Roshel as a central cause.\n \t <\/p>\n

\u201cThe persistence of the company\u2019s proposal to close and sell the Brampton plant has hindered the bargaining process,\u201d Unifor said in an emailed statement, adding that the proposed facility closure and sale threaten compensation for its members. \u201cThere is no economic substitute for automotive assembly in Canada, including the extensive supply chain, regional economic activity, and high-quality, union jobs connected to it.\u201d\n \t <\/p>\n

Flavio Volpe, president of Canada\u2019s Automotive Parts Manufacturers\u2019 Association, said he wishes Roshel the best as a company but does not support the plant being sold to them. The scale of a Stellantis vehicle production line pales in comparison to what Roshel can do, he said.\n \t <\/p>\n

\u201cThat plant is the nerve center of 60 years or so of volume automotive manufacturing,\u201d he said. \u201cThat means 500 to 1,000 vehicles a day. That means 3,000 people in the plant, and 9,000 to 12,000 people outside the plant in suppliers and supporting services.\u201d\n \t <\/p>\n

He said Stellantis still has unassigned production lines for its future vehicle plans, and it can still eventually use the plant again.\n \t <\/p>\n

\u201cI really think we need Roshel in this country, and we need a lot of Roshels, but we don\u2019t need Roshel in Brampton at that plant,\u201d Volpe said.\u00a0\n \t <\/p>\n

Roshel\u2019s pitch is that it would still work with partners in the automotive sector to bring new vehicle business to the plant, alongside its own plans to build armored vehicles there and attract other defense work.\n \t <\/p>\n

\u201cThis proposal is not about creating a substitution to an automotive plant but rather adding defense on top of the automotive production capabilities,\u201d Shimonov said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 11, 2026 4:00 PM, EDT The Stellantis assembly plant in Brampton, Ontario. (Laura Proctor\/Bloomberg) Key Takeaways: Stellantis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194339],"tags":[51759,49,48,34215],"class_list":["post-894229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brampton","tag-brampton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-stellantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}