Following recent announcements it would invest almost US$1.2bn in its Kokomo, Indiana, facilities, Chrysler said it may spend another $85m on its Kokomo transmission plant (KTP) for a variety of powertrain improvements. With this announcement, the automaker’s total investment in US facilities would climb to over $3bn since June 2009.
Chrysler Group notified officials of the potential new investment at the 13 December Kokomo City Council meeting. At the same meeting, Chrysler Group also requested the transfer of the previously approved tax abatement certificate on the announced $300m investment from the Indiana transmission plant 1 to Kokomo to facilitate production of the new eight-speed transmission.
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“We’re moving eight-speed production to KTP because we’re pulling production ahead and the timing worked better at KTP,” said Brian Harlow, who heads powertrain manufacturing at Chrysler. “This move opens up space at ITPI to prepare the plant for production of the front-wheel drive transmission, which we announced in November.”
The city council also approved Chrysler’s tax abatement application on the $843m investment for production of the front-wheel drive transmission.
