What you need to know about Windsor’s giant $6B NextStar plant

Dave Waddell, The Windsor Star

It’ll be two years in August since construction started on the multibillion-dollar NextStar Energy battery plant, but that activity level will quicken ahead of completion by mid-2025.

“We’re still working our way to the peak point,” NextStar Energy CEO Danies Lee told the Star this week.

“We’re still one year out. We’re going to start hitting our main milestones in the next year. We’ve progressed quite a lot.

“We (LG Energy Solution) have seven or eight projects going on across North America. We’re on the front burner.”

The east Windsor facility, which was created with the signing of a joint venture agreement between LG Energy Solution and Stellantis one year ago this week, will eventually have a capacity of 49.5 gigawatt hours annually when it ramps up to full production. That equates to producing enough batteries to power 450,000 vehicles per year.

“The buildings are up, but what’s inside will be even more exciting,” Lee said.

“Inside is more complex and that is the real challenge. What’s not visible from outside is the operating systems, software. It’s like a cellphone.

“Getting the buildings up has been the easy part.”

The first milestone looming ahead will be the start of production in the 445,000-square-foot battery modules plant in early fall.

How much will the plant cost?

The NextStar plant was initially forecast to cost about $5 billion to build, though industry insiders say with inflation it could end up costing more than $6 billion.

How many people has NextStar hired to date?

Currently the company has about 325 people on its payroll. About 120 or those will be working in the module factory when it launches.

There are about 2,000 people working on the site when you include those involved in constructing the facility. That number is expected to rise with all the skilled trades needed to complete the inside work in the more than half a dozen buildings on the 220-acre site.

There are about 2,000 people working on the site when you include those involved in constructing the facility. That number is expected to rise with all the skilled trades needed to complete the inside work in the more than half a dozen buildings on the 220-acre site.

Hiring for cell factory

The bulk of the hiring for the 2,500 jobs in the cell factory will begin late in the fourth quarter of 2024 or in early 2025.

“I expect we’ll reach 2,500 people in 2026 as we ramp up production,” Lee said.

Employee qualifications

The jobs available at NextStar are updated regularly on the company’s careers website: https://nextstar-energy.com/index.php/careers.

Professional level positions such as accounting, engineering and human resources will require the appropriate educational qualifications.

Production-level positions currently don’t have any minimum educational requirements.

Module plant production

The plant will take the empty aluminum/steel casings and fill them with 16 battery cells each to create a complete battery module ready for use. It will take 36 seconds from input to output to make a completed module on the glass-encased assembly line.

Each metal module will be produced in Windsor at Dongshin Motech’s factory near Windsor Airport. A dozen to 22 modules are needed in each vehicle depending on its size.

Where will battery cells come from before Windsor’s plant is ready?

LG Energy Solution is shipping battery cells in from its plant in Poland to be used in the Windsor module plant until they can be produced locally.

How many modules can be produced?

Four of the nine assembly lines to be constructed in the module plant will be in place by next year. Each can produce 3,000 modules per day, giving the plant a capacity of 27,000 modules when fully operational.

Currently, final testing is being done on the two assembly lines that will be part of the initial fall launch.

How do you make a battery cell?

A mix of lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite are the key critical minerals in a lithium-ion battery. This chemical mix is used to coat 36 aluminum and copper foil layers to form a cell.

The cell plant will have nine glass-enclosed assembly lines when fully operational.

Each battery is charged for seven to 10 days to activate it.

Where will NextStar’s batteries be used?

Every battery produced in Windsor is for use in Stellantis products. Those batteries will be shipped to plants across North America.

The local Windsor Assembly Plant won’t use NextStar batteries until after 2025.

Can NextStar react to changes in the battery industry?

“We’re pretty flexible under the umbrella of the lithium-ion battery technology,” Lee said. “I’ve been in this space for 24 years and we’ve been under that umbrella during that entire time.

“When it comes to the lithium process and chemistry, we can respond to change. If there’s a technology change, like solid-state batteries, that is a game changer.”

Lee added the NextStar plant can also make different types of batteries at the same time.

How quickly is the battery space evolving?

“Progress has come in incremental increases,” Lee said.

“Over the last 10 years, lithium batteries have incrementally increased by 70 to 80 per cent for their expected driving range and charge times. That’s significant improvement.”

Lee said automakers have also helped improve driving range by improvements in power consumption and in light-weighting their vehicles.

“It’s just not one technology or industry improving things, it’s an all-hands-on-deck approach,” Lee said.

How will uncertainty in the EV sector affect NextStar?

“Things are changing so fast,” Lee said.

“The customers we’re serving have been hit by uncertainty. There’s been a slowdown in demand and changing government policies are impacting the EV and battery industries.

“Demands change and schedules change.

“How quickly we ramp up depends on how the market is reacting and the market dynamics. Production will be phased in.”

Despite the uncertainty, both NextStar and Stellantis officials feel the current situation is merely a pause in the transformative journey of the industry. They’re confident falling prices, new models and more charging infrastructure will boost consumer confidence moving forward.

Plant logistics

With 2,500 employees and a steady stream of trucks entering the plant each day, the facility has been designed with separate access points to separate the two groups.

The main offices and employee entrance will be off Banwell Road while trucks will access the plant from Lauzon Parkway via Twin Oaks Drive.

Editor’s Note: This story is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1: ‘Unlike any place:’ NextStar Energy’s culture introduces new way of working.