Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has decided against building an all-aluminum Jeep Wrangler, the company’s CEO told a Detroit crowd recently.
The Toledo Blade reported that although the company still intends to use some aluminum in place of steel to cut weight from the popular sport utility vehicle, CEO Sergio Marchionne said the costs of doing the entire vehicle in aluminum outweigh the benefits.
This would seem to be good news for Toledo, which had been nervous about the decision. The potential for Toledo to lose production of the Wrangler — a vehicle that the city has produced for most of the last 70 years — first came up when Marchionne said the company was considering using aluminum for the next generation of the vehicle. Now that that’s not going to happen, Toledo would appear to go to the head of the pack.
Even so, Marchionne did say that the company is still examining “at least two” sites, one of which is Toledo. He would not say what other city or cities are in the running.
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