Stellantis and Samsung to spend $2.5 billion on an electric vehicle battery plant in Indiana.
Stellantis — the company that owns Jeep and Ram — and Samsung plan to spend $2.5 billion to build a battery factory in Kokomo, Ind., that is expected to create 1,400 jobs.
The joint venture is expected to start production by 2025 and is intended to supply battery packs for Jeeps, Ram trucks and other vehicles in North America. It is the second such announcement by Stellantis, which has been much slower to introduce electric cars and trucks than other established automakers.
The company aims to sell five million electric vehicles by 2030. At the end of the decade it hopes that electric cars and trucks will make up all its sales in Europe and half of them in North America. New models will include an electric Dodge sports car, an electric Ram pickup truck and an electric Jeep sport utility vehicle.
Stellantis was created in 2021 through a merger of Fiat Chrysler and the French automaker Peugeot. It is headed by Carlos Tavares, previously the chief executive of Peugeot. In an effort to catch up to Tesla, the dominant maker of electric cars, the company will spend 30 billion euros ($32 billion) on electric vehicles by 2025, Mr. Tavares said last year.
Chrysler has long had significant operations in Kokomo and currently makes engines and transitions in the city, 60 miles north of Indianapolis.
In March, Stellantis said it would build a battery factory in Windsor, Ontario, in a joint venture with a different battery company, LG Energy Solution. Stellantis currently makes minivans in Windsor.
Indiana offered Stellantis tax credits, education grants and other economic incentives worth $186.5 million to land the new Kokomo plant.
Stellantis joins several other automakers in the race to build battery plants and introduce new electric models. Ford Motor is building two battery plants in Kentucky and a third in Tennessee, and just started making an electric version of its F-150 pickup truck. General Motors expects to begin making electric car batteries this summer at a new plant in Ohio, and has two others under construction in Tennessee and Michigan.
Hyundai, the South Korean automaker, said Friday that it would spend $5.5 billion on an electric vehicle and battery manufacturing complex near Savannah, Ga., and expects to begin production in 2025.
