Stellantis offers to restart Belvidere plant, add battery facility

Stellantis is offering to restart its Belvidere plant in Illinois and build a battery plant as part of its effort to reach a deal with striking auto workers, Bloomberg reports.

Such a move would be a huge win for Belvidere and for Illinois, which has been working convince the two big legacy automakers in the state, Stellantis and Ford, to keep building vehicles there long term.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his team have been working for well over a year to get Stellantis to build EVs here, as well as a battery plant, effectively guaranteeing auto production will continue in the Rockford area.

The Belvidere plant became a bargaining chip early in the UAW negotiations, when Stellantis idled the facility and laid off 1,350 workers. Ford ended a strike with its workers Wednesday, reaching a tentative deal with an offer of 25 percent raises over four and a half years. Stellantis and GM reportedly are offering a similar deal.

Contracts go beyond paychecks. Automakers decide what will get built where. Stellantis has proposed building a new vehicle at the idled Belvidere plant, along with an additional battery plant, Bloomberg reported, citing three people familiar with the talks who declined to be identified.

If the report is true, “it would be a game-changer,” says State Rep. Dave Vella, a Democrat, who represents the area. “It’s a huge anchor. If this comes back, and I truly believe it will, it will be transformative the whole region. If they come in with a battery plant, it’s probably 2,000 to 3,000 jobs. That’s not even the parts and other jobs. It’s a monumental change for the area.

The Belvidere plant opened in 1965 and employed more than 5,000 workers at its recent peak. The Jeep Cherokee was most recently made at the facility, but production volumes were dwindling.

Illinois authorized new tax breaks in recent years aimed at luring manufacturing of electric vehicles and the batteries powering them. The incentives include tax breaks on everything from real estate to electricity, along with payroll taxes, as well as a $400 million deal-closing fund.

Pritzker made use of the resources, offering $536 million in incentives to lure Gotion Hi-Tech, a Chinese battery maker, to build a $2 billion battery-assembly plant in Manteno that will employ about 2,600 people.