NEW YORK (AP) — Automaker Stellantis said Monday it will invest $3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.8 billion) to upgrade two Canadian assembly plants and expand a research center as it accelerates its long-term electrification strategy.

Combined with its March announcement of a joint venture battery plant with LG Energy Solution, the new investment gives Stellantis an overall investment in Ontario of CN$8.6 billion.

"These investments re-affirm our long-term commitment to Canada and represent an important step as we move toward zero-emission vehicles that deliver on our customers' desire for innovative, clean, safe and affordable mobility," said Stellantis North America Chief Operating Officer Mark Stewart.

Amsterdam-based Stellantis was formed last year with the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA Peugeot and is the world's fourth-largest automaker.

Its long-term global strategy is to invest CN$45 billion through 2025 in electrification and software. The company plans to sell 5 million electric vehicles by 2030, with 50% of its North American passenger-car and light-truck sales going fully electric by 2030. It plans to sell only electric passenger cars in Europe by 2030.

In March, Stellantis announced that a joint venture between it and South Korea's LG Energy Solution to build a large electric vehicle battery factory in Windsor, Ontario, employing about 2,500 people just across a river from Detroit.

That venture plans to spend CN$5 billion to build the new plant on a field in the Canadian city. It's expected to open early in 2024 and will be able to make battery cells and modules for over 500,000 electric vehicles per year.