BYD Asked About Brampton: Inside the Five-Company Race for Stellantis' Idle Assembly Plant

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has pulled back the curtain on who is circling the city's idle Stellantis assembly plant, and the list reads like a cross-section of where Canadian manufacturing is heading: Chinese automaker BYD, Stellantis' Chinese partner Leapmotor, an unnamed Italian automaker, and two Canadian defence companies.

Brown disclosed the companies' interest in an interview reported by Bloomberg News on Sept. 1, according to INsauga. The revelations come as the future of the Brampton Assembly Plant remains uncertain — the 2.95-million-square-foot facility has sat idle since December 2023, and contract talks between Stellantis and Unifor opened Sept. 1 with the plant's future as a central issue ahead of the Sept. 20 agreement expiry.

What each suitor wants

• BYD: Brown said BYD approached him about six months ago to discuss manufacturing buses at the plant — a mass-transit play, not passenger cars.
• Leapmotor International: the Stellantis–Zhejiang Leapmotor joint venture has inquired, potentially bringing Chinese-designed EV production to Ontario.
• An unnamed Italian automaker: Brown did not identify the company.
• Roshel (Brampton-based): interested in building light-utility armoured vehicles.
• Dominion Dynamics: has discussed using the plant to manufacture drones.

Companies that have toured the facility noted existing equipment could allow conversion to different types of manufacturing, INsauga reported.

The mayor wants Stellantis back first

Despite the interest list, Brown's stated priority is seeing Stellantis itself return. "I want to see a commitment to this Brampton Assembly plant. I want Stellantis to honour their obligations," he told CP24. He pointed to a binding agreement between Stellantis and the federal government that included commitments to production in both Brampton and Windsor: "They need to come back with the jobs that they had there before, the 3,000 jobs."

The plant was supposed to be retooled for the next-generation Jeep Compass, but that plan was abandoned, with Compass production moved to Stellantis' Illinois facility in 2025. More than 2,200 Unifor members have been on layoff since production ended. Unifor said in August that Stellantis had told the union it intended to begin discussions with another company about a potential sale — though the automaker has not confirmed a sale is underway. "Our focus remains on finding a sustainable manufacturing solution for Brampton Assembly," spokesperson LouAnn Gosselin said.

Why BYD's interest is buses, not cars

The BYD angle is the most notable for Canadian EV watchers, because the world's largest EV maker has spent 2026 building a Canadian beachhead — a Markham head office, a growing test fleet, dealer-network hires — while insisting it "has not announced, approved, or confirmed any plans to launch passenger vehicles in Canada." A Brampton bus plant would fit a different strategy entirely: BYD already supplies electric buses to transit agencies across North America, and manufacturing on Canadian soil would sidestep the federal procurement friction that comes with Chinese-built rolling stock. One automotive suitor on Brown's list, he cautioned, would mean only "a few hundred jobs" — far short of the 3,000 autoworkers waiting to return.

Brampton council has already changed its planning rules to protect the site for automotive assembly and related manufacturing uses, limiting conversion to unrelated purposes. But Brown acknowledged the city's legal options are limited — the production-incentive contract sits between Stellantis and Ottawa, and federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly is working with Unifor and the company on the file. If Stellantis does not come back, Brown said his preference would be a Canadian-owned company producing Canadian-made products, with defence manufacturing among the possibilities.

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