The nearby Jefferson North Jeep plant was built in 1991 and is the latest assembly plant in the Auto City to date.
The first new car assembly plant built in Auto City since 1991, when the new Jeep Grand Cherokee L SUV rolled off the welding line, the smell of cast iron filled the air. For Stellantis, this is the taste of money. This means that there are almost 5,000 jobs in Detroit. Stellantis opened the doors to its new $ 1.6 billion assembly complex on Mack Avenue on Thursday, showing part of the 3 million square foot complex that was nearly completed and put into use during the pandemic.
The Grand Cherokee L model on the assembly line is the first of a new generation of Jeep’s best-selling product line, with the goal of expanding the brand’s sales to three-row SUV customers. So far, the Grand Cherokee has only provided five seats. Now, Jeep can accommodate up to seven passengers and can compete with competitors such as Ford Explorer, General Motors’ GMC Acadia, and large SUVs from European and Japanese brands.
Michael Brieda, the manager of the factory, said that the factory started producing cars in March and is now operating in three shifts. Brieda said that in a tight job market, the biggest challenge the factory faces is “finding people who can work in a manufacturing environment.” He said that the applicant received a manual skill test during the interview. The company stated that the plant employs approximately 2,100 Detroit City residents and 4,444.
The new Jeep factory highlights the dual character of the American car market, which sells most of the cars that pass through the Mike assembly line. Tesla has become the most valuable car manufacturer in the industry by virtue of its leading position in electric vehicle technology. But for Detroit automakers, demand for gasoline-powered trucks and SUVs continues to pay the bill. With the accelerated development of the Mack assembly plant, Stellattis will have two adjacent plants in Detroit that can produce 500,000 or more Grand Cherokee models each year.
The nearby Jefferson North Jeep plant was built in 1991 and is the latest assembly plant in the Auto City to date. Mario Holmes is the head of development for Grand Cherokee L. He said that in order to develop a new and more efficient architecture that uses aluminium and high-strength steel to reduce weight, we have made a lot of effort. He said that although the new model has three rows of seats, its weight class is the same as that of a five-seater SUV will provide an electrified power system, but the details will be announced later, he said.
A sign of the importance of the Grand Cherokee L is that factory manager Brieda stated that he can obtain enough semiconductors for new models, although due to global chip shortages, Stellattis is closing the assembly lines of other vehicles necessary for modern power systems.