NextStar Energy to start series battery production in 2025
If the battery plant in Windsor does indeed officially switch to series production this year, it will be the first battery cell factory in Canada to do so. However, there has been a significant change of plan: Stellantis actually invested in the joint venture with LGES to obtain battery cells for its North American electric cars. When production starts, however, NextStar Energy will focus on batteries for stationary storage.
“Expanding into the growing market for energy storage production will keep the plant busy until EV sales pick up again,” NextStar CEO Danies Lee said. “The EV market is slowed down. It’s like a trend that will come soon, but it does not come as soon as we expect it, so while we are waiting, we have this opportunity from the (energy storage system) ESS market.”
However, the site also produces components for electric mobility, just not the important battery cells: parts of the plant have been in operation since 2024, manufacturing battery modules with supplied cells. The start of cell production was already announced back then for 2025, albeit with cells for electric cars. Now it will (temporarily) be cells for stationary storage. The joint venture had already received the necessary operating licence for the cell factory at the end of September. This was one of the last important steps before the planned commissioning.
Despite the announcement made in 2022, it was not always clear that cell production would actually start in Windsor. As we recall, the construction of the Canadian factory did not go entirely smoothly. NextStar Energy suspended work on the production facility in mid-May 2023. The background to this was that the Canadian federal government and the provincial government of Ontario were providing up to CAD 13.7 billion in funding for the VW battery factory in St. Thomas, which is twice the size. However, Stellantis and its battery partner LGES had announced the Windsor factory in March 2022, before the Inflation Reduction Act came into force in the US with its subsidies. The duo was not willing to accept this and demanded improvements in public funding. Both sides subsequently reached an agreement, allowing Stellantis and LG Energy Solution to resume construction work, which had been suspended in the meantime, at the beginning of July 2023.
The plant already employs over 1,000 people, and NextStar has committed to hiring an additional 1,500 employees once full production capacity is reached. The factory is designed for an annual production capacity of 49.5 GWh. Whether and when this figure will be achieved remains unclear, given the uncertain situation regarding demand for electric cars in North America. On the one hand, the US tax credit for electric cars has been terminated prematurely at the behest of the Republicans, and on the other hand, the tariffs imposed by US President Trump are weighing on the Canadian industry. At the same time, the application and development of artificial intelligence is booming.
Since grid operators have to manage the increased demand and loads differently, a new market for stationary energy storage systems is emerging. These can temporarily store electricity from solar and wind farms, for example. Or power plants can operate at higher capacity during off-peak times, such as at night, to fill the storage facilities and thus create a buffer for the next peak period. “It takes about 15 years to set up one nuclear power plant but when it comes to ESS, it is a matter of one or two years. So we can more effectively bump up the capacity for the electricity using the ESS,” explained Lee.
This article was first published by Sebastian Schaal for electrive’s German edition.
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