The first phase of hiring is beginning for the NextStar Energy electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor.
The company has announced it has begun the hiring process with the recruitment of the 130-person NextStar Energy launch team.
A release from the company states, "the 130 employees will be responsible for launching one of the largest electric vehicle battery plants in the world."
The launch team includes 30 professional staff to grow business operations, as well as 100 production engineers and technicians, who will become the core team to open the EV battery plant in the second quarter of 2024.
Once the hiring phase is complete, the engineers and technicians will be sent for overseas training, to learn how to operate a large-scale lithium-ion battery plant and be able to train the thousands of additional employees that will be hired in Windsor starting in 2024.
The training will take place at the LG Energy Solution battery plant in Wroclaw, Poland.
NextStar Energy's CEO, Danies Lee, says it's exciting to be at this part of the process.
"This is critical to have those talented people who are ready to help launch the products of NextStar Energy," he says. "That's why, given the fact the factory is new to the area, we need to get those people familiar with what battery manufacturing looks like."
Lee says these are quite challenging and highly skilled jobs to help with the successful launch of NextStar Energy.
"After the 100 people we are hiring this time, another similar level for a second launch team will be hired over the next year. We have a pretty solid hiring plan in our pipeline," he adds.
NextStar Energy is the first large scale, electric vehicle battery plant in Canada with production planned to launch in 2024.
Once fully operational, the $5-billion plant is expected to employ 2,500 workers.
The operation is a joint venture between Stellantis and LG Energy Solution.