The car manufacturer has just announced that it wants to suspend production of the Cherokee model at its plant in Illinois, in the United States.
“Our sector has been affected by a multitude of factors such as the Covid 19 pandemic and the global shortage of semiconductorsbut the most important challenge is the increase in costs related to the electrification of the automotive market.” This is how Stellantis justified in a statement sent to AFP, the end of production of the Jeep Cherokee model at its US assembly site in Belvidere, Illinois.
Stellantis is going to idle the Belvidere, Illinois plant, where the Jeep Cherokee is built, indefinitely in early 2023. https://t.co/9UiCDm82Fn
— The Drive (@thedrive) December 11, 2022
1,350 employees on the floor?
The activity related to the SUV will thus be suspended on February 28, and the some 1,350 factory workers will be made redundant. In this regard, the automaker said that it “will endeavor to place the laid-off indefinite employees into full-time positions as soon as they become available”. A decision against which Cindy Estrada, employee representative (UAW union), was indignant: “Companies like Stellantis receive billions of dollars government incentives to switch to clean energy. It’s an insult to all taxpayers that they don’t put that money back into our communities.”