Jeep mother or father firm Stellantis on Friday said it will per chance indefinitely shut down a manufacturing plant in Illinois and lay off approximately 1,350 workers early subsequent year. The power – located in Belvidere, a city 75 miles northwest of downtown Chicago – is responsible for producing the internal combustion engine Jeep Cherokee crossover. In an announcement the automaker , Stellantis blamed the cost of electrifying its vehicles for the switch.
“[The automotive industry] has been adversely suffering from a massive quantity of components love the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the area microchip shortage, nonetheless the most impactful venture is the rising keep linked to the electrification of the car market,” the firm said, adding that it will per chance also shutter the skill permanently because it considers what to create subsequent.
United Auto Workers Native 1268 store chairman Tim Ferguson urged Reuters that firm documents disclose Stellantis plans to switch Cherokee manufacturing to a facility in Toluca, Mexico. “To me, there is now not any ask about it,” he said. “Their thought is to conclude this plant.” Stellantis declined to insist on Ferguson’s allegations. “We’re no longer commenting on the plot forward for the Cherokee,” the firm said.

As , Stellantis isn’t the foremost automaker to blame EVs for a latest build of layoffs. In August, Ford . “Now we receive an opportunity to handbook this thrilling original period of connected and electrical vehicles,” the automaker said on the time. “Building this future requires altering and reshaping as regards to all facets of the plot now we receive operated for bigger than a century.”
It’s additionally rate noting Friday’s announcement got right here on the identical day that workers at a Regular Motors-LG battery cell facility in Ohio voted overwhelmingly in . Unions in , , and varied ingredients of the enviornment no longer too lengthy ago asked Stellantis to elevate worker wages by as great as 8.5 percent following a year of document world inflation. Within the , Stellantis said income grew to €42.1 billion (approximately $44 billion), a 29 percent from the identical duration closing year.
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