Sept. 19, 2026, 12:01 a.m. ET
A Canadian defense manufacturer is the leading suitor to buy Stellantis NV’s idled Brampton Assembly Plant, but Chinese automakers and other foreign companies have also kicked the tires on the car factory, the city’s mayor said this week, warning that a Chinese entry could devastate the Detroit Three’s business in Canada.
Patrick Brown, the mayor of Brampton, Ontario, said this is the reality of an escalating trade war with the United States: As Trump administration policies force Detroit Three automakers to pull back their Canadian footprints, foreign competitors — such as BYD Co., Stellantis partner Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co. and others — are seeking to fill the void.
Amid the trade spat, Canadian leaders have already begun letting in up to 49,000 imported vehicles from China each year with a lower 6.1% tariff rate. And it appears some Chinese vehicles could ultimately be built in Canada, avoiding import restrictions on sales there.
“Don’t kid yourself, the dominance that the Big Three have had in the Canadian auto market will evaporate,” Brown told The Detroit News this week. “Right now, we buy American cars in Canada. You drive on any street in my community, you see the Big Three. (But) if there’s a tariff on those cars, and there’s a (trade) deal with the EU or the Asia Pacific, Canadians are going to buy the cheaper car.”
Brown said he’d much prefer to see American companies making cars at plants such as Brampton Assembly. But Canada might not have a choice but to turn to Chinese firms or others to fill the gaps at manufacturing plants left behind as the Detroit Three and other carmakers retreat due to tariffs ordered by President Donald Trump.
The mayor said there are two schools of thought in Canada: pivot now toward a market dominated by automakers from China and elsewhere, or hold out two years until the end of Trump’s term and a new president with a friendlier trade stance with Canada.
Chinese carmakers also want to set up shop in the United States — but so far have been kept out by high tariffs and other restrictions on software in the vehicles. Industry watchers believe such vehicles might still make their way to the United States anyway, especially given their growing presence in both Canada and Mexico. Trump has said he could be open to Chinese automakers locating here if they employed American workers, and Bloomberg reported this week that Chinese officials are considering bringing representatives from BYD to an upcoming summit between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week.
‘Tariffs put us into a loss’
Without Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Brown believes that Brampton Assembly would be operating right now, employing thousands of workers in his city. Instead, Stellantis has left the site shuttered since late 2023.
The carmaker initially committed to make its next-generation Jeep Compass at the facility, but it now plans to shift production of the affordable crossover to the United States, where it won’t be subject to tariffs of up to 25%. Trump is threatening to double those Canadian auto tariffs to 50% at the start of next year.
“Stellantis executives came to me when they announced the pause and said, ‘We can’t produce vehicles making a loss, and these tariffs put us into a loss,'” said Brown of the factory that in the past has employed as many as 3,000 people in Brampton.
Trevor Longley, CEO of Stellantis Canada, told Canadian employees in a Thursday letter that restarting the Brampton plant isn’t a sustainable business strategy for the company.
“Market and trade conditions have directly impacted the original business case for Brampton,” Longley said. “The automotive industry continues to face unpredictable trade policies, challenging regulatory requirements and affordability pressures.”
He confirmed the automaker is “exploring a potential sale” of the facility to Roshel Inc., a Canadian defense contractor that makes armored vehicles, but stressed the deal is far from finalized. In a separate statement to The News, Stellantis said it believes the Roshel deal “offers a credible path to create jobs” and return the site to productive use.
Roshel didn’t respond to a request for comment on its plans for the factory, but Bloomberg reported that the firm’s plan is to secure a large Canadian military contract that would allow it to bring back 1,000 workers to the plant.
Brown said multiple Chinese firms and an Italian company have also inquired about buying the plant. One proposal came from Leapmotor, a Chinese firm that has a partnership with Stellantis. Another Chinese outfit, which the mayor declined to name, also expressed interest in the facility. And Chinese auto powerhouse BYD was among the companies that reached out to the city, an inquiry related to bus production, though he said that outreach wasn’t specifically tied to the Stellantis plant.
‘First auto plant to fall’
Forcing Stellantis to continue making cars at Brampton is a top priority for the Canadian union Unifor, which is desperately trying to maintain high-paying auto jobs in the country amid Trump’s trade war. Officials said Stellantis had been promising to bring back a product to the facility as recently as August.
Unifor President Lana Payne warned in a letter this week to Canada’s minister of industry that if Stellantis abandons Brampton, car assembly at the factory is “unlikely ever to return,” calling such a departure a “disaster-scenario” for the Canadian auto industry as a whole. The letter called for a “fierce resistance” of the sale from the Canadian federal government, which had previously committed substantial financial incentives to convince Stellantis to continue operating the facility.
“The idea Canada would concede defeat on one of its remaining vehicle assembly plants is unfathomable,” Payne wrote. “That it would agree to allow a global OEM to walk-away from its commitment to the plant is incomprehensible.”
Unifor hit an impasse in contract negotiations with Stellantis a week ago due to the automaker’s move to sell the plant to Roshel. Now, union officials said they are willing to call for a strike if Stellantis does not agree to continue production at the plant.
The union’s current labor pact with Stellantis expires late Sunday, though union members were informed that such a strike, if it were to happen, would not occur until a later date, following a vote by the membership and other legal clearances. Some 9,000 Unifor members work for Stellantis, including at the company’s Windsor Assembly Plant and its Etobicoke Casting Plant.
“Selling that plant, in the middle of a trade war, and in the middle of collective bargaining, is indefensible,” Payne said in a Thursday news conference. “This would make Brampton the first auto plant to fall in this trade war. And when plants close, they rarely, if ever, come back.”
She added: “This is not just about one plant. Brampton is a symbol now. It is a symbol of a much larger concern about Stellantis in Canada, about the entire auto industry.”
Brown agreed the Roshel deal should not relieve the automaker of its commitment to Canadians and the federal government when it accepted financial incentives: “We have rule of law in Canada, and contracts that have to be honored, and … we expect people to uphold the agreements they sign.” The city also has a bylaw stating that the land that the Brampton plant sits on can only be used for automotive purposes.
“I did get a call from Stellantis worried about that, thinking it would devalue their land,” the mayor said. “And my message is, it’s not going to devalue your land if you have plans to stay.”
Brown said the plant’s ongoing closure due to the trade war has impacted business at local restaurants, as well as the thousands of families of workers who have been off the job for close to three years. High tariffs will raise prices on both sides of the border, he said, while hurting Canadian sales of Detroit Three vehicles and helping Chinese automakers.
“We fought two world wars together, we went to Afghanistan together,” the mayor said. “You know, there’s this bond. It’s uncomfortable for us to have this divorce when there’s so much friendship and affection.
“But do I think, if these tariffs stick, you’re going to see foreign auto production in the Stellantis plant and across Canada? Absolutely. Do I think that that market share that is American-dominated on every street will evaporate? Absolutely. That’s where we’re heading. You’ll see European and Chinese cars on streets rather than American cars, and that’s not our desired outcome.”
