FCA to Raise Jeep Wrangler Production 50 Percent With Next-Gen Model

A new report from Automotive News states that FCA will boost production of the Jeep Wrangler as it reconfigures its Toledo, Ohio, plant for the next-generation model. The upgrades to the assembly plant will enable it to produce 350,000 Wranglers annually, 50 percent more than what’s currently being manufactured.

FCA also said that it will continue making the current Wrangler into the first quarter of 2018, about six months after the new model is set to go into production. Jeep boss Mike Manley said he wants to keep the balance between supply and demand for Wrangler “at the right place, and to me that is supply just behind demand.”

The Toledo plant is the only one in the world producing the Wrangler, and FCA recently announced that it will halt Jeep Cherokee production there in March 2017 and move it to its Belvidere, Ill., plant so Toledo can produce Wranglers exclusively. Toledo will go offline for six months for retooling to manufacture body-on-frame SUVs. In addition to the standard Wrangler, a diesel-powered variant and Wrangler-based pickup are expected to debut in 201. The report goes on to say that the current-generation model will remain in production until March 2018, likely sold as the Wrangler Classic.

Manley also said that there’s unmet demand for the Wrangler in North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. “We’ve seen some weakness coming out of Asia, for the obvious reasons of where China is today,” said Manley. “But we still see a strong order bank from the U.S., more demand from Europe, and still some residual demand from Asia that we can’t fill.” While most of the Wrangler’s sales are in North America, Manley also said that it remains popular globally. In Europe, the Wrangler “is in demand because of what it stands for,” said the executive. “It is the incarnation of the most iconic American brand in the world, and the same thing [is true] in China, so demand continues to grow.”

Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)

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