The Windsor, Ontario, plant that builds the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Caravan will also be home to then next-generation minivan coming in 2016.
When the next generation Chrysler minivan hits the road in 2016, buyers may be able to get it with a hybrid powertrain, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters after officially launching production of the 2015 Chrysler 200 at the FCA plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., outside Detroit.
“You have to look at a hybrid,” considering where the fuel-economy standards are headed, added Marchionne, who emphasized the next minivan will be built in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit.
Marchionne also said Chrysler is reviewing the design of the next generation Jeep Wrangler to make it lighter to help meet fuel economy standards. “It has to look like a Wrangler but it has to be lighter and more efficient,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chrysler is struggling to keep up with demand for the Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Cherokees built at the FCA’s Jeep manufacturing center in Toledo. “We almost had to run the Wrangler plant on Christmas Day,” added Marchionne, who said Chrysler is now looking for way to expand production of both the Wrangler and Cherokee.
The addition of a third shift for the Cherokee line, which exports finished vehicles to Europe and Latin America is a distinct possibility once he is convinced the demand for the vehicle is stable. Earlier this week, Chrysler said the site is adding as many as 1,000 additional part-time workers to give the current full-timers a bit of a break. It’s possible of those people could be offered full-time employment at a later date.
Marchionne also told reporters that Chrysler is looking at ways re-launching the Dodge Dart, which he said probably launched with too much content for the segment in which it competes. Chrysler is now addressing the value proposition behind the Dart and the updated version of subcompact vehicle should be ready in 2015.
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“We learned a lot from the launch of the Dart,” he told reporters, and while he offered few specifics, he said the lessons are being applied as FCA launches the new Chrysler 200, which is being built at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP), which was scheduled to close at the end of 2010.
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“The plant is a real Cinderella story,” he said, noting that Chrysler has invested nearly $1 billion to make it more flexible and help improve vehicle quality.
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“The revitalization of SHAP is an apt symbol of how far Chrysler has come because of the courage and resilience of our people,” Marchionne told employees.
With the launch of the Chrysler 200, SHAP has been able to add another 800 jobs as a result of in-sourcing of different processes and the need for additional content in the 200. Total employment at SHAP has grown to nearly 2,800 or more than doubles what it was in 2009.