FCA Will Keep Making Jeep Wrangler in Toledo, Move Cherokee

After nearly a year of uncertainty, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has decided it will continue to make its iconic Jeep Wrangler SUV in Toledo, Ohio, Automotive News reports.

AN says the Toledo complex also is expected to add a long-awaited pickup truck variant of the Wrangler in 2017 or 2018.

FCA's Jeep complex in Toledo consists of two factories: a body-on-frame facility that makes the Wrangler and a unibody plant that builds the Jeep Cherokee. CEO Sergio Marchionne indicates FCA will move Cherokee production elsewhere so it can convert the Cherokee line to build the next-generation body-on-frame Wrangler due in 2018.

Shifting Cherokee production out of Toledo probably to Michigan or Illinois would enable FCA to continue making the current Wrangler without interruption while preparing to build the new model. Media reports have suggested the next-generation Wrangler will combine a high-strength steel frame with an aluminum-intensive body.

Retooling for aluminum work is a major project that would otherwise disrupt output of the current Wrangler, a very popular and very profitable model, for months.