Stellantis Invests $406M in US Plants to Build BEVs Alongside ICE Models

The automaker’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant will be its first US factory to build a fully electric vehicle, the Ram 1500 REV.

Photo by: Stellantis

Anthony Alaniz

By: Anthony Alaniz

Sep 11, 2024 at 1:00pm ET

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Stellantis will invest $406 million into three Michigan plants.
The bulk of the money will go toward its Sterling Heights Assembly Plant to build the Ram 1500 Rev and 1500 Ramcharger.
Sterling Heights Assembly will be the company’s first US plant to build a fully electric vehicle.

On Wednesday, Stellantis announced it is investing $406 million into three Michigan factories. The money will go toward preparing the facilities to produce battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and their associated components, and the automaker plans to build BEVs alongside their combustion-powered counterparts as it navigates a changing automotive industry and faces questions about its future in the United States.

The automaker’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant is getting the bulk of the investment—$235.5 million—which will allow the facility to produce the electric Ram 1500 Rev and the range-extended 1500 Ramcharger. It’ll be the company’s first US plant to build a fully electric vehicle. (The all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona will be built in Brampton, Ontario, just outside Toronto.) The company has installed a new conveyor system, new automation processes for BEVs, and retooling to allow it to build gas- and battery-powered pickups on the same line.

Nearly $100 million will go to preparing the Warren Truck Assembly Plant to produce the electric Jeep Wagoneer. Stellantis will have the ability to assemble the electric vehicle on the same line as the combustion-powered Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer models, which should allow it to tweak production to better build the types of vehicles customers want.

Flexibility is something that Dodge CEO Matt McAlear talked about last month regarding the new Charger Daytona, which rides in the STLA Large platform that Stellantis is investing in. The Dodge will spawn BEV and combustion-powered models.

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The smallest investment, $73 million, will go to improve the automaker’s Dundee Engine Plant. The money will help retool the factory to build battery trays for the STLA Frame platform later this year and front and rear beams for the STLA Large architecture in 2026. Stellantis will build those components alongside two new combustion engines, including a new 1.6-liter inline-four that the company could use for future hybrid-electric vehicles.

The future is unclear, especially for automakers. People must make vital decisions years before a product goes on sale. Stellantis has 14 brands under its control after the PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles merged in 2021, and the company’s plan to give every one of them a decade to prove their worth remains in place even as sales decline and the lineup thins in the US. But it takes time to chart a new course, and we will see new products from Stellantis soon.