Chrysler to Expand Detroit Plant, Add 400 Jobs

Chrysler LLC is spending an additional $1.8 billion on new vehicle programs, including an expansion of its Jefferson North (Detroit) Assembly Plant, vice chairman and president Tom LaSorda said.

Jefferson North will get a new body shop and a paint-shop upgrade for a new generation of vehicles for the start of production in 2010.

In prepared remarks for his speech Wednesday, August 13, LaSorda said the expansion and new vehicle program will help create 400 new jobs in Michigan.

LaSorda did not reveal the vehicles, but he told Detroit radio station WJR-AM 760 it would be a car-based SUV. He was speaking at the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Michigan.

The plant currently builds the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Commander.

LaSorda also said Chrysler has identified $1 billion in nonearning assets it plans to sell. He said the automaker is halfway toward achieving that goal. The plant will be flexible to allow multiple different vehicle models to be built on the same assembly line, LaSorda indicated. The expansion adds 285,000 square feet.

Filed by David Barkholz of Automotive News, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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