Overview
- Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Thursday that Canada will not allow “knock‑down kit” cars at Brampton, referring to vehicles mostly built overseas and shipped as parts for light final assembly.
- Joly warned that Ottawa will seek to recover federal subsidies unless Stellantis restores meaningful manufacturing at the plant that was retooled with more than $529 million in public funds.
- Unifor confirmed Stellantis floated a Leapmotor plan built on kits from China and said that model would create very few assembly roles and no parts‑supplier work for the roughly 3,000 Brampton workers.
- Stellantis declined to confirm specifics and said it is evaluating options for Brampton, after shifting the promised Jeep Compass program to Illinois in 2025 and leaving the facility idle.
- U.S. officials have signaled that Chinese‑linked EVs assembled in Canada could face tariffs or be blocked at the border, which would confine any Leapmotor output to Canada’s smaller market despite a January tariff deal allowing limited Chinese EV imports.