Good News For Toledo Jeep Plant

DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ stamping plant in Sterling Heights will soon be making parts for the Jeep Wrangler and is on track to get second round of investments for new stamping presses so it can handle that work, FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said Friday. Marchionne announced the Wrangler work at an event for employees to celebrate the completion of a $166-million investment in three new stamping presses that will increase the plant’s production capacity by 30%. The investment at the stamping plant, announced last summer, is part of $5.3 billion the company said it would invest over the next four years as part of the automaker’s commitments to the UAW in contract negotiations last year. As part of those commitments, the automaker will spend more than $1 billion to retool its plant in Toledo, where it will make the next-generation Wrangler and dramatically expand the annual production of the iconic Jeep SUV. “When we resume the production of Wrangler we will increase the capacity of Wrangler and we need a feeding source” and Sterling Stamping is serving as that source, Marchionne said.