Strong demand for American made sport-utility vehicles has prompted Fiat Chrysler to open a new factory in Detroit.
The plans for the new factory were reported by CNBC and the Wall Street Journal.
The Detroit factory will be the first new U.S. assembly plant to be built by a major domestic car maker since before the Great Recession, the Wall Street Journal reported. It is the first new plant in Detroit in 27 years, according to the Detroit News.
Foreign and domestic automakers are under increasing pressure from President Donald Trump to boost production of cars, trucks and SUVs in the United States — even as his administration wages a costly trade war with China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union that is raising steel prices and threatening tariffs on imported vehicles.
FCA’s plans for its Detroit plants come as GM CEO Mary Barra was on Capitol Hill for a second straight day to caucus with Michigan’s congressional delegation and Ohio’s two senators. They want the automaker to reconsider its plans to idle four U.S. plants next year, a request that Barra appears to have politely rebuffed.
When Mack II starts production of the three-row Grand Cherokee, FCA would begin retooling Jefferson North Assembly Plant — directly across the street from the Mack Avenue Engine Complex — to make way for the next generation of the two- and three-row Grand Cherokee. A public announcement is tentatively scheduled for the end of next week.
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