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Mayor: There's still hope to revive Belvidere Assembly Plant
Story by Jeff Kolkey, Rockford Register Star • 11h ago
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The idled Chrysler Belvidere Assembly plant is pictured Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Belvidere.© Susan Moran/Rockford Register Star
As the weeds grow taller on the Belvidere Assembly Plant campus, Belvidere Mayor Clint Morris is hopeful that the Belvidere Assembly Plant won't remain idle.
Once home to as many as 5,000 production employees, Stellantis idled the plant in February after sales of the Jeep Cherokee faltered and as the company works to transition much of its fleet to electric vehicles. Its remaining 1,219 production workers, some of whom were offered jobs at other plants, were laid off indefinitely.
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Morris said he remains optimistic the plant will be revived because many of the same reasons the site was chosen to build Chryslers in 1965 are the same reasons it remains a viable option to build the vehicles of tomorrow.
"We have a lot of things going for us," Morris said. "Geographically, it still fits and we still have a great workforce."
Although the employee parking lots are mostly empty at the plant, other lots are filled with pickup trucks and vehicles headed for dealerships across the region. The Belvidere Assembly Plant, despite idling, remains a rail transportation hub for Stellantis vehicles ready to be shipped to dealerships, a company spokeswoman said.
It is unclear if the plant will re-open and what vehicles it would produce if it were to do so.
Stellantis — the maker of Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler vehicles among many others formed from a joining of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot of France — has so far not definitively said what its plans are for the 5.4 million-square-foot plant. No closure agreement was reached with the United Auto Workers which has a contract through September with the automaker.
Officials said Illinois Gov. JB Prtizker's office is continuing to engage Stellantis to work out an agreement to revive the plant. And negotiations for a new contract this between the United Auto Workers and Stellantis is also another chance for new products to come to the Belvidere Assembly Plant.
Stellantis has not said where it plans to build two of its planned electric vehicles, the Jeep Recon or the vehicle code named the Wagoneer S.
Morris said Illinois put together an impressive package of incentives that included the Re-Imagining Electric Vehicles Act and a $400 million deal-closing fund. There are also federal incentive programs for the production of electric vehicles.
Illinois is competing with Michigan, Indiana and Canada for Stellantis production models, Morris said. Stellantis recently paused construction of its $3.7 billion electric vehicle battery plant in in Canada amid talks with the government over support for the project.
The company has promised to convert all of its European vehicles into electric vehicles and half its U.S. vehicles to electric, pledging billions of dollars.
State Rep. Dave Vella, D-Rockford, said the location and quality of the Belvidere Assembly Plant "is too good" to remain shuttered for long.
It is on a rail line, along Interstate 90 and near the Chicago Rockford International Airport which makes it attractive, if not for Stellantis, than for other companies, Vella said.
There is also vacant land adjacent to the massive campus for potential battery manufacturing, Vella said.
"This plant is in play," Vella said. "If Stellantis doesn’t come, I truly believe someone else will. But I do think Stellantis is going to come. I think good things are going to happen soon."
Jeff Kolkey can be reached at (815) 987-1374, via email at jkolkey@rrstar.com and on Twitter @jeffkolkey.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Mayor: There's still hope to revive Belvidere Assembly Plant
Above is from: Mayor: There's still hope to revive Belvidere Assembly Plant (msn.com)
