Stellantis Pours $406M Into Michigan Plants for “Multi-Energy” Production Improvements

Stellantis announced a massive investment into three of its Michigan assembly plants to equip them for what it’s calling a “multi-energy strategy” (different methods of propulsion—hybrid, all-electric, and traditional gasoline) approach in the years to come.

The Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, which produces the Ram 1500, will become the conglomerate’s first U.S. plant to build an electric vehicle—the Ram 1500 REV. The $235.5 million investment will enable the facility to produce gas-powered Rams, the all-electric Ram 1500 REV, and the range-extended Ram 1500 Ramcharger. According to the announcement, Stellantis noted that all three vehicles will be built on the same assembly line, thanks to its efforts to partner “with equipment suppliers and contractors to carefully plan and execute the installation of a new conveyor system, new automation for BEV-specific processes, and the retooling and rearrangement of workstations in general assembly.”

The Ram 1500 REV first bowed at the 2023 New York Auto Show, and production is expected to begin at the end of this year. It will be built on the new STLA architecture, which is specifically designed to underpin full-size electric vehicles with a body-on-frame design. Stellantis says the REV will have up to 500 miles of range thanks to a massive 229-kWh battery pack, or up to 350 miles from a 168-kWh pack.

Across town, the Warren Assembly Plant—home of the Jeep Wagoneer and Wagoneer L, the Grand Wagoneer and the Grand Wagoneer L, and up until last month, the Ram 1500 Classic—receives an infusion of $97.6 million that will help it build “a future electrified Jeep Wagoneer.” Worth noting here: The vehicle in question is not the Wagoneer S, which is built in Mexico. The electrified Wagoneer is one of four Jeep EVs set to launch globally before the end of next year. (Fingers crossed that the Jeep Recon EV, which we first saw in September of 2022, is still in the cards; that thing looks like a lot of fun.) As it’s doing with the Sterling Heights plant, Stellantis says that at the Warren plant, electrified models will be built on the same line as the ICE versions of the Wagoneer family.

Southeast of Detroit, the Dundee engine plant also gets a cash injection of around $73 million. The plant, according to Stellantis, will be retooled to “assemble, weld, and test battery trays for the STLA Frame architecture and to machine the front and rear beams for the STLA Large architecture.” Alongside those EV-specific components, the Dundee plant will also build a new 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that is slated to power a multitude of hybrid vehicles. Said engine launches next year.