Some auto workers at the Stellantis Windsor Assembly Plant say they are taking things a day at a time after Dodge CEO Matt McAlear confirmed Thursday that the company is postponing production of its 2026 base model Dodge Charger EV.
McAlear said in a statement that the company was postponing the 2026 Charger Daytona R/T as it continues “to assess the effects of U.S. tariff policies.”
But Stellantis says the decision will have no impact on jobs at the plant, which employs around 4,500 people to build the Charger and the Chrysler Pacifica minivan.
It says it plans to add a four-door Charger model in 2026 and another new model in the second half of that year.
“It’s never good news when you’re losing a model, when you’re not going to be building it, because it’s less production coming out of your plant,” said labourer Denis Desaulniers, who has been with the company for 31 years.
“But we’ve also got to realize we do have … the gas Charger we’re going to be introducing, and hopefully everything goes good.”
‘Welcome to the auto industry’
Desaulniers says workers weren’t surprised by the announcement, given softening demand for electric vehicles and the impact of the U.S. trade war against Canada.
The Trump administration has levied 25 per cent tariffs on non-CUSMA-compliant vehicles assembled in the country, though there are carve-outs based on the number of American-made parts in the vehicles.
Since those policies went into effect, there have been several shutdowns at the Windsor facility.
Most recently, the company announced in early May there would be a mix of shutdowns, reduced hours and full production over 12 weeks — a change the company did not attribute to tariffs.
“Welcome to the auto industry,” Desaulniers said, when asked how he was coping with the constant changes.
“I’ve been here 30 years, and it’s always been a roller-coaster ride,” he said. “I’ve lived through a bankruptcy. We lived through COVID. We lived through different things that have happened in the auto industry. So you just take it day by day. It’s out of our control.”
Industry veteran Paul Lachance, who has been with the Stellantis plant for 12 years, expressed a similar sentiment.
“The mood at the plant is just, ‘Take it one day at a time,'” Lachance said.
“Our work schedule has changed three times in the last, say, week or so. I’ve had to change my dentist appointment three times.”
The president of the union representing the plant’s workers said she doesn’t expect an immediate impact on staffing levels in Windsor.
Postponement expected to have little impact on jobs
“The plant is currently ramping up for the launch of additional Charger models, and this continued work is expected to maintain current employment levels for now,” said Unifor national president Lana Payne.
Other industry experts and insiders expressed similar confidence that the postponement would not impact employment in the short term.
The president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, Flavio Volpe, says the latest Stellantis decision shows how sensitive Canadian auto production is to the actions of the U.S. administration, not only when it comes to tariffs, but also when it comes to electric vehicles.
But Volpe said the decision to postpone the more price-sensitive base model of the Charger EV while focusing on higher-end models whose buyers are less price-conscious alleviates some of his concerns.
“This is a company saying, ‘OK, let’s keep that car platform alive. How do we adjust the wide customer base we have for Charger and still keep production happening in Windsor?'” he said.
One Canadian auto journalist, meanwhile, said he believes Stellantis’s decision is about appeasing U.S. President Donald Trump without costing the company too much money.
Stellantis didn’t sell a large number of electrified Chargers in the United States, according to Greg Layson, the digital and mobile editor for Automotive News Canada.
“What I can tell you about Windsor is I’ve been told from people on the inside that, yes, they are focusing on internal combustion engine versions of the Dodge Charger,” Layson said.
“That includes retooling the engine line, I’m told, to put in a bigger engine.”
Layson said he’s expecting more work reductions at the plant but not permanent layoffs.
Minister ‘convinced that we can get to a good place’
Production on the 2026 Charger Daytona R/T was supposed to begin later this year.
And the company has not specified when it might resume.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters Thursday morning that she talked with the CEO of Stellantis, who assured her that Canadian jobs were protected.
“We agreed that we would continue conversations in a positive way regarding EV investments in Canada, and I’m convinced that we can get to a good place,” she said.
Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says she spoke with Jeff Hines, the CEO of Stellantis’s North American operations, Thursday morning and was assured that Canadian vehicle manufacturing jobs would be protected and the ‘conditions of workers would remain the same.’ Her comments follow news that the automaker is delaying production of the Ontario-made Dodge Charger because of U.S. tariffs.
“Obviously, this decision is linked to U.S. tariffs, and so, as we said, we would continue to fight for Canadian jobs, create new ones and grow the Canadian economy.”
But one auto industry expert said he doesn’t believe tariffs are solely to blame for the postponement.
Peter Frise, a professor of mechanical and automotive engineering at the University of Windsor, said sales of EVs are down, as potential customers continue to express concerns about less towing power and lower ranges than gas-powered cars and insufficient charging infrastructure in some places.
“We saw it 10 days ago when Honda announced that they were going to postpone the construction and development of their big EV centre in Alliston, Ont.,” Frise said.
“These kinds of delayed investments, postponements of the start of production, reduced production volumes, are happening throughout the auto industry around the world. And it just so happens this particular model was going to be built in Canada, and it won’t be for a while, but I think it will come back and I think we have to be hopeful that it will.”
Frise said he’s confident EVs will be the dominant vehicle in the coming years, and Windsor, with its NextStar battery plant, is well-positioned to benefit from it.
