Stellantis sells Canada plant to armored vehicle maker Roshel

The Stellantis Brampton Assembly Plant in Brampton, Ontario, in 2025. (Laura Proctor/Bloomberg)

Stellantis NV signed a deal to sell an idled auto plant near Toronto to Roshel Inc., a Canadian armored vehicle manufacturer, for undisclosed terms.

The plant in Brampton, Ontario, once employed about 3,000 unionized workers but hasn’t been in production since late 2023, and has become a prime example of the damage to Canada’s auto sector caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. 

“Brampton employees have made lasting contributions to Stellantis, and we take our responsibilities to them and their families seriously. After three years of paid layoff, we remain committed to working with Unifor on a fair resolution,” Antonio Filosa, Stellantis’ CEO, said in a statement, referring to the union that represents laid-off auto workers at the plant.

Stellantis was set to build the Jeep Compass SUV there, but scrapped that plan last year following Trump’s imposition of 25% tariffs on foreign-made cars. The automaker said those vehicles will be produced in Illinois instead.

Stellantis, created from the 2021 merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Group, is grappling with stubbornly high U.S. inventory levels, persistent quality issues and fierce Chinese competition in Europe that have complicated turnaround efforts. To reignite growth, the automaker is in the midst of a turnaround effort and plans to spend some 60 billion euros ($67.2 billion) through 2030 to launch dozens of new models, prioritizing the Jeep, Ram, Peugeot and Fiat brands. In North America, it plans to add new trucks to try to rebuild sales.

But company executives have expressed significant doubts about whether the Brampton plant, which is about 40 years old, fits into those plans. 

“Stellantis has betrayed our members with an underhanded deal to sell the plant and walk away from its commitments to these workers. Allowing the sale to move forward is a critical failure of the national auto strategy,” says @Lanampayne on the sale of the Brampton Assembly Plant.

— Unifor (@UniforTheUnion) November 10, 2026

Roshel, whose head office is near the Brampton facility, is one of two finalists bidding on a Canadian military contract worth as much as C$4.9 billion ($3.5 billion) to build light utility vehicles, which would be manufactured at the plant. 

Stellantis and Roshel signed a memorandum in September outlining the steps toward a sale. At that time, Roman Shimonov, Roshel’s chief executive officer, told Bloomberg News his firm would also work to attract other vehicle manufacturing and defense work to the plant. 

“This proposal is not about creating a substitution to an automotive plant, but rather adding defense on top of the automotive production capabilities,” Shimonov said in September.

As part of its pitch for the Canadian military contract, Roshel has outlined partnerships with other Canadian firms, including the Algoma Steel Group Inc. mill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Last year, Roshel announced a partnership with Swedish steel producer Swebor Stal Svenska AB to establish Canada’s first facility entirely dedicated to producing ballistic-grade steel.

But the planned Roshel sale is staunchly opposed by Unifor. 

“It’s clear that heavy corporate lobbying has convinced some in government that armoring trucks or reassembling cars is viable replacement work for Brampton,” Unifor National President Lana Payne posted on social media Nov. 7.

“Canada will have given up a lucrative auto assembly and supply chain capacity, for small batch, mostly contract-based upfitting work — turning tens of thousands of jobs into a few hundred.”

She reiterated her comments at a news conference on Nov. 8, adding that the Roshel deal “is not better.” 

In its statement, Stellantis said it acknowledged its obligations to employees under the collective agreement and that it remains prepared to engage with Unifor.

It’s not immediately clear what say Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government would have over a sale transaction for the plant to a Canadian company — though it does control Roshel’s ability to get Canadian military contracts. 

After Stellantis relocated the Jeep production line, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly’s department pursued legal action to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in financial help given to the company, alleging it had breached its commitments.

Stellantis spokesperson LouAnn Gosselin said Nov. 9 that the company has offered to voluntarily return the government support it received for the original retooling plan at the Brampton plant. 

The company and government have not revealed how much federal money was provided to the firm, citing confidentiality agreements.

But a copy of the 2022 contract disclosed under access-to-information laws in Canada reveals that the federal government pledged up to C$529 million in funding for projects at both the Brampton plant and a facility in Windsor, Ontario.

Here is my statement on Stellantis: https://t.co/7JEvAUz6yr

— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) November 9, 2026

Joly asked representatives from Unifor, Stellantis, the Ontario government and the Brampton plant to meet later this week, she said in a social media post.

“Stellantis’s decision does not erase the commitments they made to workers in Brampton,” Joly said. “For Brampton’s auto workers, walking away is not an option.”

Stellantis said it expects the transaction to close by the end of 2026.