A Brampton car plant is getting a second life in defence.

On Monday, Stellantis and Roshel announced an asset purchase agreement under which Roshel will acquire the Brampton Assembly Plant and its associated equipment. Neither company disclosed the price.

Why it matters: A Canadian armoured vehicle maker is picking up an auto plant in its own hometown, just as Ottawa pushes to build more defence kit at home.

Roshel will take over the plant and equipment, and the transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026, subject to closing conditions that include government and regulatory requirements.

The companies are also setting up a strategic cooperation framework to explore global collaboration across vehicle technologies and related services in the defence industry.

According to the release, the deal will:

Roshel wants the site to become a new Centre of Excellence for advanced manufacturing.

"Aligned with Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy, it will strengthen our sovereign industrial capabilities, drive local economic growth and bring much-needed manufacturing space and jobs to the Toronto area," said Roman Shimonov, founder and CEO of Roshel.

Shimonov said the centre will help Canadian companies serve customers at home and export into allied markets. The release doesn't say how many people Roshel will hire or what it will build first.

Roshel is headquartered in Brampton and designs, engineers and manufactures smart armoured vehicles. It has more than 2,500 vehicles deployed to Ukraine.

The company runs a vertically integrated model, with in-house ballistic steel processing, transparent armour production, armoured capsule engineering, drivetrain integration and mission system upfitting. Its lineup spans MRAP, APC, medical evacuation, recovery and counter-drone configurations.

Now it gets a car plant in its own city.

For Stellantis, the sale fits its FaSTLAne 2030 strategy, which aims for about 80 per cent capacity utilization across North America in 2030.

"With this announcement, we are driving forward our broader strategic goals, opening new opportunities for Stellantis in the defence industry and creating a path to return the Brampton facility to productive industrial use," said Antonio Filosa, Stellantis CEO.

Brampton employees have spent three years on paid layoff. Filosa said the company remains committed to working with Unifor on a fair resolution, and Stellantis said it is prepared to negotiate a settlement for union-represented employees.

Stellantis isn't leaving Canada. It still runs Windsor Assembly Plant, Etobicoke Casting Plant, the Automotive Research and Development Centre in Windsor and its CpK operations, and employs more than 10,000 Canadians outside Brampton.

The timing lines up neatly with Ottawa's playbook.

The Defence Industrial Strategy lists specialized manufacturing, including land vehicles, among Canada's 10 key sovereign capabilities, and its Build, Partner, Buy framework puts building in Canada first. The strategy also sets a target of raising the share of defence acquisitions awarded to Canadian firms to 70 per cent over the next 10 years.

Watch for Roshel to put numbers on the Centre of Excellence, including jobs, products and timelines, and for the first concrete projects to come out of the Stellantis partnership.