Jeep Cherokee’s Future Hangs in the Balance after Plant Idled

  • Stellantis will indefinitely idle its plant in Belvidere, Illinois, where by the Jeep Cherokee is constructed, as initially reported by Automotive News.
  • The firm cites quite a few factors for the plant becoming idled, together with the COVID-19 pandemic and related source-chain shortages.
  • There will be a quick operate of 2023 Cherokees, but the go indicates the SUV’s position in the Jeep lineup could possibly be vacant after this product 12 months or generation could shift to an additional area.

UPDATE 12/10/2022: In an job interview with Reuters, the shop chairman for United Automobile Employees (UAW) union Regional 1268 disclosed that organization files indicate that Cherokee manufacturing will relocate from Belvidere, Illinois to Stellantis’s plant in Toluca, Mexico.

A longtime Chrysler-FCA-Stellantis assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois, will be indefinitely idled as the business pursues selections to “optimize functions,” in accordance to a report currently by Automotive Information.

The Belvidere plant is at the moment the only producing facility responsible for the output of the Jeep Cherokee SUV, which phone calls into problem the crossover’s upcoming. A agent from Jeep advised Auto and Driver that the Cherokee will keep on being in creation at Belvidere Assembly by way of the conclusion of February 2023, and the models remaining created now are 2023 versions. In a statement to Reuters, UAW leader Tim Ferguson said inside company documents show creation of the Cherokee—or its replacement—will be moved to Stellantis’s producing facility in Toluca, Mexico.

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“The section is quite critical to us and we prepare to continue to be committed to it prolonged-expression,” a Jeep spokesperson mentioned when pressed on potential programs for the Cherokee nameplate.

Demand for the Cherokee has fallen sharply about the previous number of many years. In 2019, 191,397 copies observed households, though in 2020, only 135,855 ended up marketed in 2021, income dwindled to 89,126. In the meantime, Jeep dealers moved just 30,852 Cherokees in the first 9 months of 2022, a fraction of the 189,727 Grand Cherokees—a a lot more high priced and likely a lot more financially rewarding model—sold in the exact same time period.

The up coming compact Jeep SUV may be an EV. Jeep has in-depth programs to shift to electrical automobiles in current months, together with an Avenger EV for European and other world markets and a Wrangler-influenced Recon EV for North The united states. Time will inform, but the legendary, albeit problematic, nameplate could come across itself emblazoned on the liftgate of an electric off-roader.

The plant shut down will effects the nearly 1300 staff members, a lot of of which are UAW union customers, when the facility is idled on February 28, 2023. According to the AN report, layoffs are probably, despite the fact that reassignment to other production amenities may be a possibility for some of the plant’s workforce.

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