Automaker Stellantis lays off hundreds of American workers, blaming high cost of making electric cars

FOX Business ^ | December 10, 2022 | By Julia Musto

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Multinational automaker Stellantis is indefinitely closing an assembly plant in Illinois in February and laying off hundreds of workers, in large part due to the high cost of making electric vehicles.

Stellantis noted in a statement emailed to FOX Business on Friday that the industry had been adversely affected by factors including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the global microchip shortage and the increasing cost related to the electrification of the automotive market, which it said was the most impactful.

There are about 1,350 workers at the Belvedere plant, which produces the Jeep Cherokee.

Stellantis reportedly told The Associated Press that that automaker would not comment on the future of the "Cherokee nameplate."

"This is an important vehicle in the lineup, and we remain committed long term to this mid-size SUV segment," Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson told the agency.

Stellantis has said it will invest more than $31 billion through 2025 on electrifying its vehicle lineup, with electric vehicles to make up half of its U.S. sales by 2030.

[Carriage Hill]

Probably more of our money, than they should have...

[gibsonguy]

“Nothing wrong with a 10 spd xmission.“

Until you have to repair/replace it. The point is to get the cars CAFE compliant you have to over engineer the hell out of them which causes countless points of failure.

[Paladin2]

Your optimal # of speeds for an A/T?

[I maintain a propensity for owning manual xmission vehicles [6]].

YMMV.

[gibsonguy]

you are missing my point..again. You do that a lot here.

[Paladin2]

You are not answering the question as to your solution.

[Lurker]

“The plant in Belvedere has been closing and laying off workers for decades.”

It hits the Rockford area pretty hard. Used to be a great American industrial city. That’s all but gone now.

L

[Paladin2]

Although you might think this Ford 10 speed transmission would be huge considering the number of gears, it really isn’t. Ingenious packaging allows the 10R80 transmission to fit into roughly the same footprint as a more conventional Ford 6-speed automatic transmission. To make this possible, a special space saving triple-clutch assembly (there are six clutches in total; 2 brake, 4 rotating) is mounted toward the middle of the one-piece aluminum case (there’s also four gearsets in there too).

[Paladin2]

You may be ignoring the # of hardware sets v. the software [and control modules]. Four gear sets are not that much more complicated than the 3 gearsets of an older 4 spd auto. with a lower number of clutchpacks.

Both transmissions have a single microprocessor [or hydro analog computer for way older vehicles [which I still have].

Old Skool manuals remain the most reliable.

YMMV.

Go get a commie EV and be happy.

[Vaduz]

Money well wasted.

Indeed the electric Edsel