“We understand that success is never permanent, and that we have to earn it every day.”
Chrysler Group will invest nearly $240 million to increase engine and truck capacity while adding 1,250 new jobs at several southeastern Michigan plants. In the latest example of the ongoing wealth creation that was the goal of the Obama Administration’s forced bankruptcy reorganization of Chrysler and General Motors, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said, “All of these investments are the direct result of a lot of people who have battled courageously to bring Chrysler back to a state of growth.
With this announcement, Chrysler Group’s investments in its U.S. facilities will increase to nearly $4.75 billion since the dark days of June 2009 when it was just emerging from insolvency and certain oblivion without government intervention. In the same period, the comeback car company has added or preserved nearly 6,000 hourly good paying union jobs.
Chrysler Group reported U.S. sales of 126,185 units in October, a 10% increase compared with sales in October 2011 (at 114,512 units) It was the Group’s best October sales since 2007, and the 31st-consecutive month of year-over-year sales growth. (See Chrysler Group U.S. Sales Up 10% in October). Defeated presidential wanna-be Mitt Romney said that the government should have let Chrysler and GM die.
Marchionne, along with Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, other local officials and UAW Vice President General Holiefield, joined employees to celebrate the news at an event at the Mack I Engine Plant.
The investments include:
- Mack I Engine Plant – $198 million to produce the Pentastar V6 engine, and adding up to 250 new jobs if sales continue to increase
- Trenton North Engine Plant – investing an additional $40 million to add a flexible production line that can run both the Pentastar engine and the so-called Tigershark four-cylinder engine
- Warren Truck Assembly Plant- adding 1,000 new jobs on a third crew in March 2013 to produce the 2013 Ram 1500 pickup truck
