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Chrysler Announces Plans to Retool and Expand Jefferson North Assembly

TRAVERSE CITY — Chrysler LLC said Wednesday it would invest $1.8 billion retooling and expanding its Jefferson North Assembly Plant to build a new car-based sport utility vehicle to be sold under the Jeep nameplate.

The company’s vice chairman and president, Tom LaSorda, said the money would be used “in new vehicle programs” and a 285,000-square-foot expansion of the plant “including a new body shop that will allow increased flexibility and higher output.”

LaSorda, attending the Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminars, told reporters at lunch that the plant would build at least 120,000 vehicles including a next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee under the program beginning in the spring of 2010. The vehicle will have the company’s all-new more fuel-efficient Phoenix engine and a more advanced axle.