Stellantis Took $529 Million in Taxpayer Money. Moved the Jobs to Illinois. Then Proposed Assembling Chinese Cars With Kits Shipped From China.

In 2022, the federal government gave Stellantis up to $529 million in public subsidies through the Strategic Innovation Fund. The deal required the automaker to maintain an average of 4,475 full-time employees in Canada and keep production running at its Brampton, Ontario, assembly plant through December 2035. Stellantis retooled the plant. Then, in October 2025, Stellantis moved production of the Jeep Compass to Illinois instead — blaming U.S. tariffs — and left 3,000 Unifor workers without jobs.¹

This week, Stellantis proposed its solution: assemble Chinese electric vehicles at the idle Brampton plant using knock-down kits shipped from China, in partnership with Leapmotor — a Chinese automaker in which Stellantis holds a 21% stake. Industry Minister Mélanie Joly rejected it within hours.²

“Knock-down kit” assembly is not manufacturing. It is the final stage of a process that keeps all the real jobs — the parts fabrication, the supply chain, the engineering, the value-added production — in China. Components arrive pre-manufactured. Workers bolt them together. The local supply chain is bypassed entirely. Unifor president Lana Payne was blunt: “This is not a proposal for assembly and manufacturing. It’s knock-down kits and it’s a huge problem.”³

Vito Beato, president of Unifor Local 1285 representing the Brampton workers, said the Chinese model provides “a fraction” of the jobs that a traditional assembly plant does. Flavio Volpe, head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said any vehicle made at Brampton should meet the 75% North American content rule required under the CUSMA trade agreement. Knock-down kits from China would not come close.

Stellantis and Leapmotor have already tried this model in Poland — they opened a plant in 2024 to assemble the Leapmotor T03 from Chinese kits and shut it down within a year.⁴

The proposal exists because of a door the Carney government opened. In January, Carney struck a deal with China to reduce tariffs on up to 49,000 Chinese EVs from 100% to 6.1% — the most-favoured-nation rate — in exchange for lower Chinese duties on Canadian canola and other food exports. Carney said at the time that the deal would drive “considerable” new Chinese joint-venture investment in Canada and create new auto manufacturing careers.⁵

Ryan Lu / Unsplash — Leapmotor assembles EVs from ‘knock-down kits’ — pre-manufactured parts shipped from China, put together locally with minimal domestic supply chain involvement. Unifor called it ‘not manufacturing.’

Stellantis walked through that door within weeks. The Leapmotor proposal is the first major Chinese auto investment to emerge since the tariff reduction — and it looks nothing like what Carney described. It is not a joint venture that creates Canadian manufacturing careers. It is a knock-down kit operation that keeps the jobs in China and uses a Canadian factory as a tariff-avoidance shell.

Joly rejected the proposal, setting three conditions any plan must meet: standard labour protections, support for the local auto parts supply chain, and software standards compliant with CUSMA. “We can’t bring cars in a kit to Canada,” Joly said. “It needs to support the local supply chain.”⁶

Ontario Premier Doug Ford called the proposal “unacceptable.” He said it would undermine Ontario autoworkers and the province’s manufacturing base — the same concerns he and Unifor raised when Carney cut the Chinese EV tariff deal in January.

But the rejection leaves the Brampton plant with no plan. Stellantis has defaulted on its subsidy agreement. The Jeep Compass is being built in Illinois. The Leapmotor proposal has been blocked. Three thousand workers remain laid off. The plant has been dark for more than two years. And the government has yet to recover any of the $529 million.⁷

This is the pattern of Canada’s auto industrial policy. Ottawa writes enormous cheques to multinational automakers — $529 million to Stellantis, billions more to Volkswagen and Honda — in exchange for commitments that the companies abandon the moment the economics shift. The subsidies are spent. The jobs leave. The plants go dark. And the government announces a dispute resolution process while the workers stay home.

Meanwhile, BYD is already in talks to open Canadian dealerships. Chinese EVs are arriving under the new tariff framework. And the first company to propose using it — Stellantis — proposed a model that would keep the manufacturing in China and use a Canadian plant as a pass-through.

Stellantis took $529 million in Canadian taxpayer money. Stellantis promised to keep the Brampton plant running until 2035. Stellantis moved the jobs to Illinois. Then Stellantis proposed assembling Chinese cars from Chinese kits in a Canadian factory with a fraction of the original workforce — and called it a solution. Joly rejected it. Ford called it unacceptable. Unifor said it is not manufacturing. But the Brampton plant is still dark. Three thousand workers are still laid off. The $529 million has not been returned. And the door Carney opened to Chinese EVs in January produced exactly what the critics predicted: not Canadian manufacturing jobs, but a Chinese assembly operation dressed up as investment. The first test of the China tariff deal has already failed — and the plant that was supposed to prove Canada could compete in the auto industry is an empty building with no plan, no production, and no jobs.