Belvidere Assembly Plant

The factory was built in 1964 and 1965 in the south part of Belvidere, Illinois, adjacent to U.S. Route 20. The first production line vehicle was made on July 7, 1965, assembling the new Chrysler C platform vehicles. Less than 2 years after it opened, the plant was affected by an F4 tornado on April 21, 1967, which passed nearby. While the plant was not directly hit, 300 new cars and 100 employee cars were destroyed. The Belvidere Assembly Plant is adjacent to the Chrysler-operated Belvidere Satellite Stamping Plant. The stamping plant produces sheet metal parts for the production line. The factory has of floor space over of land, and had produced 5.9 million vehicles by the end of the 1993 model year. In 2006, the factory became the first Chrysler plant to use a body shop consisting entirely of robotics. The 780 robots in the body shop could make necessary tool changes automatically, within a 47-second cycle time. The factory is capable of building three models of vehicles as well as test-building a fourth vehicle. The Simulation (SIM) Room comprises of the factory and is used to create a miniature production process and to test the layout of job stations, and creating standard work instructions. A two-foot grid is painted on the floor to measure dimensions and employee walk-time during simulated production and efficiency modeling. In October 2010, it was announced that $600 million were to be invested into the Belvidere Assembly Plant in preparation for 2012 model year vehicles to be built there. The Dodge Dart (PF) was announced in December 2011 to be built at the plant. On December 9, 2022, Stellantis announced that Belvidere Assembly would be placed into an "indefinite closure" effective February 28, 2023. The Belvidere site was a point of contention in 2023 United Auto Workers strike, with the United Auto Workers and Stellantis negotiating a future use for the site. The resulting contract, announced on October 28, 2023, includes the reopening of the plant in early 2025, reportedly to assemble a new mid-size Ram pickup truck. A planned expansion would also add an electric vehicle battery plant, creating 1,100 new jobs at the facility. On March 31, 2023, the plant was struck by a second tornado, which removed two air handlers from the roof of the plant, causing a gas leak (the same tornado also caused the collapse of Belvidere's Apollo Theatre)). On November 9, 2023, President Joe Biden visited Belvidere and held a speech with local UAW leaders on the reopening of the plant. In August 2024, Stellantis has said that it was delaying investments in the plant. As of November 2025, Stellantis plans to begin pilot production and testing of the Jeep Compass line in December 2026 with sellable units starting production in December 2027. Jeep Cherokee production will start in November 2028. The Ram mid-size truck was assigned to the Toledo Complex. ==Labor==

In 1985, there were around 4,000 employees working at the plant. At the start of the Neon car production, there were 3,250 hourly and 250 salaried employees working as of 10 November 1993. The plant was idled during the Chrysler bankruptcy filing and became a one-shift operation from July 2009. A temporary second shift was added by October 2009. In May 2019, Chrysler laid off 1,403 employees after the "C" shift was eliminated. Production of vehicles dropped from 263,521 in 2008 to 84,609 in 2009. The workforce is represented by the United Auto Workers, Local 1268 and 1761. There have been two UAW-ordered strikes in the plant's history. In 1973, there was a nine-day strike over the right to turn down overtime, pension funding, and health and safety measures. In 1981, there was a nine-day strike to receive pay parity with Ford and GM workers. Chrysler proposed eliminating several job classifications so workers could be required to perform more than one task. Haig Stoddard, a Global Insight analyst, cited the plant as one of three plants that had been considered in a plan to close one plant. ==Awards==

In 2005, the factory was the recipient of Plant Engineering's Top Plant Award for efficient turnover in the changeover from Neon production to Caliber production. The Chrysler Group has been awarded the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine's (ACOEM) Corporate Health Achievement Award after a tour of the plant. == Vehicles produced ==

Future Products Stellantis assigned the Jeep Cherokee (KM) and Jeep Compass (J4U) to Belvidere Assembly, a 600 million dollar planned investment, with production beginning in 2028. == References ==