The company points to the tariff environment in its decision-making.
Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, announced on Tuesday its plans for a $13 billion investment in its U.S. operations. It’s not building any new plants, but most of that spending – and 5,000 new jobs – will be spread across existing factories in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Ford and General Motors have made similar domestic investment announcements in recent months. But this one’s the biggest.
Stellantis’ chief executive says it’s “the largest investment in our 100-year-long history in the U.S.” And it didn’t come out of nowhere: The Section 232 tariffs on imported passenger vehicles, raised by the Trump administration earlier this year, clearly influenced the company’s decision. The Detroit Free Press noted Stellantis had expected for a loss of $1.7 billion this year under the policy.
“Tariffs are getting clearer and clearer. And we believe that tariffs will be just another variable of our business equation that we need to be ready to manage, and we will,” Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa told Reuters in an interview.
Indeed, this is in line with what we’ve been saying: Certainty around tariffs is key to encouraging domestic manufacturing growth. Knowing where those tariffs stand will affect decision-making. And we’re also on record with saying tariffs, broadly, should be kept up. And we’re not the only ones.
“A year ago, Stellantis was on a fast-track to moving their U.S. operations out of the country. Their decision today proves that targeted auto tariffs can, in fact, bring back thousands of good union jobs to the U.S.,” said United Autoworkers President Shawn Fain. “Wall Street and supposed industry experts said this was impossible. But race to the bottom created by free trade is finally coming to an end.”
So let’s get to the specifics. Where will some of these investment be made? Which Stellantis plants will be hiring?
The company in a release said “the $13 billion investment plan includes research and development and supplier costs to execute the Company’s full product strategy over the next four years as well as investments in its manufacturing operations.”
As for the specifics of where the company will spend that money, the Detroit News reported its Belvidere, Illinois plant — the site of devastating layoffs a few years ago — will reopen for the production of two new Jeep vehicles: the Jeep Cherokee and Jeep Compass. Stellantis says it will invest more than $600 million there and create around 3,300 jobs. A new midsize truck will be assembled in Toledo, Ohio; the investment there is expected to be $400 million and an additional 900 jobs. The company will spend $100 million to retool its Warren, Michigan plant to produce a new electric vehicle and internal combustion engine large SUV. A new Dodge Durango is to be built at its Detroit plant, which will get a $130 million infusion. And the company’s Kokomo, Indiana facilities will produce a new GMET4 EVO engine; investments there will total more than $100 million and are expected to create 100 jobs.
It wasn’t too long ago that Stellantis was shuttering American factories and moving jobs overseas, so a lot can change between now and when these planned investments are made and these new jobs are created. Still: This is good news for U.S. auto manufacturing.