They are sterile, they are corporate and they move and think on a monolithic slab-like scale. They are a be-everything, go nowhere train riding on a non-existent track. They are Stellantis. Sterile corporate monolith Stellantis announced last year grand delusional plans to build a $5BN EV battery plant in Ontario, Canada. There was one catch, the sterile corporate monolith wanted federal assistance, another way of saying “penny for the poor”. The monolithic slab-like edifice that is Stellantis, wanted taxpayer money as a condition to building the battery plant in Canada.
Like a gangster intimidating local shop owners, sterile Stellantis revealed on Monday that it had ceased preliminary ground works on the battery plant in question. Sterile monolith Stellantis said that negotiations with Canada’s federal authorities were continuing. Presumably, the corporate monolith was twisting Federal arms and threatening to pull out of Canada altogether.
In April, Canada’s federal authorities awarded grants and subsidies worth $10BN USD to attract Volkswagen to build an EV battery facility in Southern Ontario. For sterile Stellantis, it appears that Federal ministers are backtracking, wants value for money, or taxpayer money has dried up, or think Stellantis is not up to the job compared to Volkswagen.
Or perhaps, this is a wild guess, Volkswagen doesn’t want a competitor moving in on its territory and has twisted a lot of ministerial arms to ensure they remain the top operator in Canada’s EV battery industry.