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 documented by Automotive Information.
• The organization cites many causes for the plant being idled, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and related supply-chain shortages.
• There will be a limited run of 2023 Cherokees, but the shift implies the SUV’s area in the Jeep lineup could both be vacant immediately after this product year or production could go to an additional area.

UPDATE 12/10/2022: In an interview with Reuters, the shop chairman for United Automobile Personnel (UAW) union Neighborhood 1268 disclosed that company files indicate that Cherokee generation 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 firm pursues solutions to “enhance operations,” in accordance to a report right now by Automotive News.

The Belvidere plant is at the moment the only production facility dependable for the creation of the Jeep Cherokee SUV, which calls into query the crossover’s potential. A agent from Jeep instructed Automobile and Driver that the Cherokee will remain in output at Belvidere Assembly through the finish of February 2023, and the versions staying created now are 2023 products. In a assertion to Reuters, UAW chief Tim Ferguson mentioned interior firm files indicate creation of the Cherokee—or its replacement—will be moved to Stellantis’s producing facility in Toluca, Mexico.

“The segment is pretty significant to us and we approach to remain dedicated to it extensive-time period,” a Jeep spokesperson reported when pressed on long term programs for the Cherokee nameplate.

Demand for the Cherokee has fallen sharply above the previous couple of many years. In 2019, 191,397 copies found residences, though in 2020, only 135,855 had been marketed in 2021, gross sales dwindled to 89,126. In the meantime, Jeep sellers moved just 30,852 Cherokees in the 1st nine months of 2022, a portion of the 189,727 Grand Cherokees—a a lot more high priced and probable much more financially rewarding model—sold in the same time period.

The upcoming compact Jeep SUV could be an EV. Jeep has thorough strategies to shift to electric powered vehicles in current months, such as an Avenger EV for European and other worldwide marketplaces and a Wrangler-influenced Recon EV for North The usa. Time will tell, but the legendary, albeit problematic, nameplate could uncover itself emblazoned on the liftgate of an electric off-roader.

The plant shut down will influence the nearly 1300 staff, quite a few of which are UAW union members, when the facility is idled on February 28, 2023. In accordance to the AN report, layoffs are likely, whilst reassignment to other production services may well be a risk for some of the plant’s workforce.

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