Stellantis announces job cuts at Kokomo EV battery plant
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StarPlus Energy LLC, the joint venture between global automaker Stellantis and Samsung SDI, is laying off 59 workers at its EV battery production plant in Kokomo, Stellantis announced Wednesday.
In a statement to Inside INdiana Business, Stellantis said the move comes as “the electric vehicle market continues to evolve” in the United States.
The $2.5 billion plant, plans for which were first announced in 2022, opened last December and was expected to have all three of its production lines operational by the end of this year.
Stellantis said the plant would ultimately employ 1,400 people. Spokesperson Jodi Tinson told IIB that total employment at the facility currently stands at 730 workers.
“Stellantis continues to evaluate its product strategy in North America to ensure it is offering customers a range of vehicles with flexible powertrain options to best meet their needs,” the automaker said in its statement. “As a result, the StarPlus Energy battery plant…has made operational decisions which necessitate a reduction of approximately 18% of its salaried workforce.”
The affected salaried employees will receive a severance package that includes benefits coverage, according to the statement.
The announcement comes about two months after several hundred hourly employees were placed on temporary layoff. However, Tinson noted that more than a third of those workers have returned to the facility.
In October 2023, StarPlus Energy announced plans for a second, $3.2 billion EV battery plant that is expected to bring an additional 1,400 jobs. The joint venture said at the time that production would begin at that facility in 2027.
However, the timeline for the second facility remains uncertain.
“Construction of the second plant will be developed considering the current market conditions to ensure flexibility and alignment with future demands,” Tinson told IIB.
Stellantis is the 22nd-largest employer in Indiana with about 6,100 full-time Hoosier employees, according to IBJ research. In addition to the StarPlus facility, the automaker operates three plants in Kokomo: the Indiana Transmission Plant, Kokomo Transmission Plant and Kokomo Casting Plant.
In April, the company said it was temporarily laying off 900 U.S. workers as a result of tariffs on the automotive sector. That move affected an unknown number of workers at the three Kokomo plants, though Tinson said some workers have been called back and others will be recalled as needed.