Stellantis to Create New Midsize Truck at Jeep Plant

UAW Strike Impacts Stellantis Belvidere Plant Plans

The United Auto Workers (UAW) has proudly announced that the Stellantis Belvidere plant in Illinois, formerly close down earlier this year, will be used to produce a new midsize pick-up truck. UAW President, Shawn Fain and Vice President, Rich Boyer shared this satisfactory news through the following video exposé.

Amid restarting the production lines, Stellantis has pledged to employ more than a thousand people at the new battery plant in Belvidere. The employees who had been let go from Belvidere have been put on temporary furloughs with access to health benefits and a partial income.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) allege that, as the stoppage began, Stellantis was planning to reduce 5,000 positions by shuttering two facilities: Trenton Engine Complex and Toledo Machining. It seemed like Stellantis had no more tasks for these locations; however, UAW representatives bargained new engine obligations.

Stellantis TA Announcement

The United Auto Workers failed to say what items would be created in Trenton and Toledo. The Toledo Machining facility is responsible for manufacturing steering columns and torque converters, while the Trenton Motor Complex assembles the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6. This popular V6 continues to be produced, as Stellantis has an additional couple of plants designing various types of this engine. Naturally, with time this aged engine will inevitability become obsolete. Stellantis’ turbocharged four cylinder is a good swap and the Hurricane straight six provides superior overall performance.

A major conundrum surrounds what plans will be put into motion by Stellantis for its Belvidere Plant. Unfortunately, there has been no confirmation just yet. However, two potential scenarios are hypothesized.

The first is the Ram Rampage – a diminutive Ford Maverick opponent from South America. The former responsibility of Belvidere was to assemble the Jeep Cherokee, with similar architecture to that of the Rampage. Planned outfitting of the factory to put together another structure like the Rampage, would be more economical rather than completely refurbishing for a new vehicle.

However, the Rampage isn’t a mid-sized vehicle, and those employed by the UAW are expected to be aware of the various size classes within the car industry.

Shawn Fain, head of the UAW, likewise declared that Belvidere would be getting both combustion engines and electric motors, which could possibly mean either a hybrid vehicle, a totally electric one, or an altogether unprecedented model.

The sole realizable midsize pickup truck in Stellantis’ selection is the Jeep Gladiator. We are aware that a 4xe variant is presently being produced, and it makes sense considering the Wrangler 4xe is the number one best-seller among hybrid plug-ins in America. It appears probable that Belvidere is likely to be selected as the production site for the Jeep Recon, based on Stellantis’ Temporary (STLA) Large platform. Or it could be both…

In any case, the facility would necessitate an overhaul, since the Gladiator shares characteristics from both a Wrangler in its frontal design and a Ram 1500 at its core.

Will Stellantis be ready to front the potentially hundreds of millions of dollars that it could take? This appears to be likely, seeing as they have also declared their intent to construct an electric battery manufacturing facility. If cars with a robust reliance on batteries will be in production, why not create the energy source close by and start up a battery plant?