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Stellantis (STLA) on Wednesday said it would invest $406 million to upgrade three Michigan plants to build electric vehicles, including the automaker’s first fully-electric car made in the U.S.
Stellantis, which owns brands like Jeep, Ram, and Chrysler, said its Ram 1500 REV pickup truck will be built at the company’s plant in Sterling Heights alongside the 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger. The European automaker said it would invest $235.5 million to support the plant, which has been retooled to build the electric truck as well as traditional gas-powered models.
“Sterling Heights Assembly has performed an incredible transformation in record time and I want to thank our colleagues for this great achievement,” Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement. “Gearing up to build our first-ever Ram electric truck and the range-extended version in Michigan is a meaningful moment of pride for our teams.”
The news comes about a month after Stellantis said it would lay off as many as 2,450 workers in Warren later this year and end production of the classic Ram 1500 pickup truck, which has been updated for the 2025 model year. Around 3,900 people currently work at the Warren Truck Assembly Plant.
On Wednesday, Stellantis said it would invest $97.6 million in the plant to produce a planned electric Jeep Wagoneer, which is one of four electric Jeeps the company plans to launch by the end of 2025. The internal combustion engine(ICE) versions of the Wagoneer, Wagoneer L, Grand Wagoneer, and Grand Wagoneer L will continue to be made at the plant.
Jeep brand CEO Antonio Filosa told Automotive News on Tuesday that the electric Wagoneer S will not launch “if the quality isn’t perfect.” The model, which is being built in Mexico, is planned to debut this fall.
In July, Stellantis temporarily laid off some 1,600 workers after it cut production from two to one daily shift for the month, The Detroit News reported. Those cuts were tied to sales of the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, which fell by 24% and 17%, respectively, for the second quarter.
Stellantis said it will also invest more than $73 million in the Dundee Engine Plant, which has recently started making the 1.6-liter, I-4 turbocharged engine, for hybrid EVs that will launch in 2025. It’s also launching production of the GME-T4 EVO engine later this year.
The Dundee plant will be retooled to assemble, weld, and test battery trays for Stellantis’s “STLA Frame” architecture for EVs and front and rear beams for the “STLA Large” architecture. Production for the STLA Frame will begin this year, while the STLA Large parts won’t be made until 2026.
“With these investments supporting both Jeep and Ram, we’re adding innovations to our Michigan manufacturing footprint to support a multi-energy approach that is laser-focused on customer demand,” Tavares said in a statement.
The announced investments come after weeks of criticism from top United Auto Workers union officials, who have bashed the company for delaying plans to rejuvenate its Belvidere plant in Illinois. Tavares has also been criticized by UAW President Shawn Fain for visiting the Sterling Heights plant to oversee plans to turn the company’s fortune around. Earlier that week, a worker at Stellantis’s plant in Toledo, Ohio, died after an accident on the job.
“Tomorrow the CEO of this company plans to head into Michigan and lecture a plant about quality,” Fain said on Aug. 22. “A worker was killed at one of Stellantis’s plants and the CEO wants to talk about the quality of cars. That is inexcusable and it’s inhumane,” Fain continued, blaming “corporate greed.”
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the name of Ram’s first electric truck that will be built in the U.S. It is the Ram 1500 REV, not the Ram 1500 Ramcharger.
