stellantis marks 30th anniversary of unique high-tech testing facility in windsor
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mohammed malik, manager, vehicle dynamics at the stellantis automotive research and development centre is shown during a media tour on tuesday, august 4, 2026.
dan janisse
the normally secretive masterminds behind a first-of-its-kind auto research centre in windsor lifted the veil on operations tuesday to celebrate their 30-year partnership.
the automotive research & development centre (ardc), a longstanding collaboration between stellantis and the university of windsor, has been operating mostly under the radar in the rhodes drive business park since 1996.
“maybe i’m a car geek, i don’t know, probably true,” said trevor longley, president and ceo of stellantis canada. “but i can’t walk through this facility without getting absolutely incredibly bewildered by all the cool things that are going on.”
“this is the future of stellantis. this is the future of our vehicles being built right here in this facility and i couldn’t be more excited.”
the tour on tuesday was one of the few times the public has been allowed a glimpse of the facility in three decades. during the speeches, dozens of employees, media and other guests sat on chairs between rows of battery and cell testing chambers.
trevor longley, president and ceo, stellantis canada speaks at the stellantis automotive research and development centre on tuesday, august 4, 2026.
dan janisse
the ardc launched 30 years ago with a mandate to test and study the structure and durability of the company’s vehicles. stellantis said the windsor facility has “played an important role in the product development of nearly every vehicle in the company’s portfolio.”
when the centre opened in 1996, with an initial investment of about $30 million, designers were still using pencils and rulers. now researchers work with autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence.
“everyone in this room knows that change is constant in the auto industry but also in society,” said prof. judy bornais, a uwindsor associate vice-president. “and technology is continuing to evolve from electrification and advanced propulsion to software-defined vehicles and new mobility solutions. collaboration between academia and industry will be more important than ever.”
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over the last 30 years, more than 800 university of windsor co-op students have studied at the facility. tony mancina was in the first uwindsor engineering co-op class in 1999.
“i was a co-op here in this company and now it’s come full circle,” said mancina, director of the ardc and canada engineering for stellantis. “now i’m running the facility, which is a very proud moment for my mother.”
bornais said the ardc/uwindsor partnership was the first collaboration of its kind in canada.
the vehicle dynamics simulator lab at the stellantis automotive research and development centre is shown during a media tour on tuesday, august 4, 2026.
dan janisse
the centre now also works with other educational institutions including mcmaster university and the university of waterloo.
“its founders understood a simple truth that the past 30 years have actually proven to be true,” said bornais. “that universities and industries accomplish more together than either of us ever can do alone. today, ardc works with universities across canada and around the world and we’re proud that it all began with the university of windsor.”
in 2023, construction began on the institute’s 100,000-square-foot north american battery technology centre, on the same campus as the original facility, where celebrations were held tuesday.
it’s one of only two such facilities that stellantis runs. the other one is in italy. the windsor centre is the company’s hub for north american battery research and testing.
the focus is now on electrified propulsion systems including batteries, power electronics, electric machines, motor controls, energy management and embedded software.
the facility as a whole has received about $2 billion in funding over the last three decades. mancina said another $500 million is expected in the next five to 10 years.
he said the facility’s unique features include stellantis’s only dynamic driving simulator in north america, with the capability to recreate real driving scenarios down to bumps, g-forces, sways and rolls.
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“we try to keep everything secret here because of the type of work that we do,” said mancina. “we not only work on current production vehicles, we work on future vehicles as well. so, we work on all of our ice (internal combustion engine) vehicles, electric battery configurations of all sorts. we keep this place so quiet that the last time we did something like this was 10 years ago on our 20th.”
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