Stellantis Idles Production At The Windsor Assembly Plant Once Again!

Production has been idled once again at the Windsor Assembly Plant in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The 4.4 million square feet facility manufacturers the entire lineup of Chrysler minivans (Chrysler Pacifica, Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, Chrysler Voyager, and Chrysler Grand Caravan). 

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The facility shut down production yesterday, Monday, July 11th, and the local union (Unifor Local 444) posted on its social media pages over the weekend that the shutdown will continue throughout the week of July 11th. The plant has been idled several times this year due to supply chain shortages.

Production employees should not report to work unless advised to by their supervisors. Skilled Trades and Apprentices should report for their regular shifts. 

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The Windsor Assembly Plant struggled during the pandemic. After facing several shutdowns due to the semiconductor shortage, Stellantis announced that it would be moving to a one-shift operation starting in June. The cuts would eliminate about 1,800 jobs at the facility.

In October 2020, we reported that the Windsor Assembly Plant would be updated to produce either an additional plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or a battery-electric vehicle (BEV) product expected to launch in 2024. We predicted at the time it could be either a production version of the popular 2017 Chrysler Portal Concept, a smaller minivan-like vehicle with Level 4 autonomous features, or a production version of the then Chrysler Airflow Vision Concept, a technology buck shown off during the 2020 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

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Retooling is expected to start for the Windsor Assembly Plant in 2023, and the plant will have “maximum” flexibility to adjust production volumes as needed to meet the changing market demand over the next decade. It is said that multiple models will be produced at the plant, so we believe that the Airflow and next-generation minivan, could be joined by something else if not even a long-wheelbase (three-row) version of the Airflow.