Fiat Chrysler to invest $1b in US plants, add jobs

Detroit: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will invest $1 billion to retool and modernise two plants in the US Midwest, including one that would be able to make the Ram heavy-duty pickup truck currently produced in Mexico, it said on Sunday.
The automaker said the investment would create more than 2,000 production-related jobs. The company also said it planned to add three new Jeep models, including a pickup truck, to its product lineup and make them in the United States.
The announcement comes as US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to slap large tariffs on vehicles imported into the United States from Mexico.
Trump, a Republican, has attacked Ford Motor and more recently General Motors and Toyota Motor for building cars in Mexico.
He mostly criticised Ford during the campaign. But in October in Michigan, the then-presidential candidate singled out FCA layoffs, adding: "Those jobs went to Mexico, China, India and other countries."
FCA executives did not confer with Trump before making the decision on the new big SUVs and a Jeep pickup truck, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking. The same source said Marchionne wanted to get out the news about adding jobs and investment in the United States in case FCA encounters more criticism from Trump.
Last week, Ford scrapped plans to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico and invest $700 million in a factory in Michigan.
FCA said a plant in Warren, Michigan, near Detroit, would make the Jeep Wagoneer and Jeep Grand Wagoneer SUVs, while a Toledo, Ohio, factory would produce the Jeep pickup.
The company said the production plans in Ohio and Michigan were "subject to the negotiation and final approval of incentives by state and local entities."
US consumers have increasingly shifted toward SUVs and pickup trucks and away from sedans in recent years, as gasoline prices have remained relatively low.
A year ago, Marchionne said FCA would cease production of two sedans and focus on SUVs and pickups.
Marchionne said in a statement on Sunday that the lineup changes were due to that consumer shift. "We continue to reinforce the US as a global manufacturing hub" for SUVs and pickup trucks, he added.