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Stellantis To Shut Down Jeep® Cherokee (KL) Production This Next Week!

Automaker Also Has Announced Cuts At Tipton Transmission Plant...

Stellantis has announced that it will idle its Belvidere Assembly Plant (BVAP) which manufacturers the midsized Jeep® Cherokee (KL) for the week of December 6th. The reason behind the shutdown in production… lack of semiconductor chips. 

2021 Jeep® Cherokee Trailhawk 4×4. (Jeep).

After what looked like a very productive November in its North American operations, the stop in production at the Belvidere, Illinois plant is a tough blow to its workforce just before the holidays. The BVAP facility has faced more shutdown time than any other plant in Stellantis’ North America operations since the beginning of the pandemic.

This has been caused by slow sales from the Cherokee on a global scale, lack of semiconductor chips, and the fact that the plant only produces one vehicle at the moment.

2021 Jeep® Cherokee Trailhawk 4×4. (Jeep).

Most recently, Stellantis announced that it will cut another 400 additional jobs at the plant by Friday, January 14th due to the reasons above.

Stellantis North America released the following statement about the upcoming week’s shutdown…

“Stellantis continues to work closely with our suppliers to mitigate the manufacturing impacts caused by the various supply chain issues facing our industry. Due to the unprecedented global microchip shortage, production at the Belvidere (Ill.) Assembly Plant will be down the week of Dec. 6.”

Inside the Tipton Transmission Plant in 2017. (Stellantis).

Stellantis also recently announced that it would be eliminating 200 jobs from its Tipton Transmission Plant in Indiana, citing the decreased production due to the global semiconductor shortage. The cut will permanently eliminate one shift at the 863 employees ran facility. 

“Tipton Transmission has reduced one crew of assembly due to lower volumes impacted by downtime and other production actions taken as a result of the global microchip shortage,” said a Stellantis spokesperson in a statement.

Inside the Tipton Transmission Plant in 2017. (Stellantis).

The automaker is also calling for the layoff of “voluntary” and “temporary” production personnel, as it expects that most of the 200 employees laid off from the Tipton facility will apply for other openings at other plants.

Those openings include the repurposed Kokomo Engine Plant, which turned the idled Kokomo Transmission Plant II facility into a state-of-the-art engine manufacturing operation to produce the turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four-cylinder (also known as the GME-T4, or Global Medium Engine – Turbo 4-Cylinder). 

Robert S. Miller

Robert S. Miller is a diehard Mopar enthusiast who lives and breathes all that is Mopar. The Michigander is not only the Editor for MoparInsiders.com, 5thGenRams.com, and HDRams.com but an automotive photographer. He is an avid fan of offshore powerboat racing, which he travels the country to take part in.

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I’ve owned two Cherokees over a seven year period and think it is a very good vehicle, dependable, comfortable and almost perfect for my needs. Almost. I also believe, if I could improve it my way, then the Cherokee would be a bit longer, a bit wider and have a bit more capable drivetrain. With the issues at Belvidere, including its single product and rumors of Challenger, Charger and hopefully some kind of 300 replacement coming to Belvidere, the opportune time to reinvent Cherokee is now. I believe a new Cherokee must be built off the new Grand Cherokee platform as a shortened, more capable RWD vehicle ready for a couple of versions of the new strait six that eliminates the current shortfalls and can be built along side the GC just about sized in the same segement as the old GC. Priced just below the now more costly GC it fits a clear niche hole in the Jeep lineup and should be a more popular GC alternative in the global markets. This move would also eliminate the too close relationship between the current Cherokee and the very similar Compass. Frankly I think the plans for exactly this are far along and being kept very quiet, because it makes absolute sense. Sure I have been beating this Cherokee drum for months, but it just is so clearly the best way to save the Cherokee. Cherokee is a product that has too much going to let it continue to whiter in obscurity.

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I agree with Bill. That makes sense, let's hope it happens.

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same thing happened at Ford with the Escape plant

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I’ve owned two Cherokees over a seven year period and think it is a very good vehicle, dependable, comfortable and almost perfect for my needs. Almost. I also believe, if I could improve it my way, then the Cherokee would be a bit longer, a bit wider and have a bit more capable drivetrain. With the issues at Belvidere, including its single product and rumors of Challenger, Charger and hopefully some kind of 300 replacement coming to Belvidere, the opportune time to reinvent Cherokee is now. I believe a new Cherokee must be built off the new Grand Cherokee platform as a shortened, more capable RWD vehicle ready for a couple of versions of the new strait six that eliminates the current shortfalls and can be built along side the GC just about sized in the same segement as the old GC. Priced just below the now more costly GC it fits a clear niche hole in the Jeep lineup and should be a more popular GC alternative in the global markets. This move would also eliminate the too close relationship between the current Cherokee and the very similar Compass. Frankly I think the plans for exactly this are far along and being kept very quiet, because it makes absolute sense. Sure I have been beating this Cherokee drum for months, but it just is so clearly the best way to save the Cherokee. Cherokee is a product that has too much going to let it continue to whiter in obscurity.

Cherokee can either get larger and offer a proper 3rd row and stay on the same FWD configuration. Or, move to a smaller than WL RWD configuration.
It needs to differentiate itself from Compass and GC.

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Why does every time they make production decision made on chip availablity it is used as a excuse to critique the product?

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