Dive Brief:
- Jeep parent Stellantis announced that the next-generation Cherokee SUV will be the first U.S. market vehicle built on the automaker’s new STLA One platform, the company announced in an Aug. 14 press release. It’s set to be built at its Belvidere, Illinois, assembly plant.
- Pilot production of the next-gen Cherokee is expected to begin in the first half of 2028, with series production targeted for the second half of 2029. Stellantis expects to assemble a minimum of two vehicles on its STLA One architecture at the factory, which has been idle since February 2023 after the fifth-generation Jeep Cherokee was discontinued.
- To prepare for the launch of the new Jeep Cherokee, Stellantis expects to boost its investment in Belvidere to more than $800 million, up from the $600 million the company previously announced in October 2025. It’s part of a larger $13 billion commitment to expand its U.S. manufacturing capacity.
Dive Insight:
In July 2024, Stellantis was among the recipients of a $1.7 billion Department of Energy grant allocated to automakers to support the conversion of shuttered or at-risk auto manufacturing plants like the Belvidere facility to build electric vehicles.
The automaker was awarded $335 million from the DOE to convert the plant for EV production. But Stellantis, along with General Motors, Ford Motor Co., has since revised its electrification strategy following slower than anticipated sales and billions of dollars in EV-related write-downs.
In February, Stellantis announced it was writing off roughly $26 billion previously allocated toward launching new EVs and electrification over a five-year period from July 2021. The canceled investments included developing battery technology and new EV platforms.
The automaker now says that the Belvidere assembly plant, which is located roughly 60 miles west of Chicago, will play a central role in executing its FaSTLAne 2030 strategy announced in May to launch new vehicles and boost sales, especially for the North American market where profits have stumbled over the past several years.
“Launching the next-generation Cherokee on STLA One allows us to deliver a more competitive product while leveraging the strength of our U.S. manufacturing operations,” Stellantis CEO and North America COO Antonio Filosa said in a statement. “Selecting the right product architecture, timing and execution path supports our growth strategy and creates the best long-term outcome and stability for our employees, customers and stakeholders."
The modular STLA One global vehicle architecture is designed to shorten time to market, strengthen supplier stability and improve cost efficiency up to 20%, per Stellantis. It brings together five different Stellantis platforms into a single, scalable version offering reduced complexity and expanded coverage across global B, C and D segment vehicles.
The Belvidere plant will be capable of producing all powertrain versions of the next-gen Cherokee across two shifts, per the release.
Stellantis plans a total investment of 60 billion euros ($69.7 billion) over the next five years to accelerate growth and profit as part of its FaSTLAne 2030 strategy. In an investor presentation in May outlining the strategy, Filosa said 60% of the money will be put into promoting Stellantis’ brands and products and 40% into new vehicle platforms, technologies and other common assets. He said that the North American market currently represents around 40% of the automaker’s revenue.
Last October, when Stellantis announced its original plan to invest $600 million in Belvidere, the automaker said it expected to add roughly 3,300 jobs and begin building the Jeep Cherokee and Jeep Compass SUVs for the U.S. market in 2027. Now the initial restart has been pushed forward to 2028.
For the displaced UAW workers laid off when the Belvidere factory was idled in 2023, Stellantis says it remains committed to supporting those who have been awaiting the plant's reopening and will offer temporary relocation opportunities.
The automaker said it intends to continue paying supplemental unemployment benefits and healthcare costs, per the release. Stellantis also said it will increase the amount of unemployment benefits to reflect the 2023 UAW labor contract wage increases, as well as address future pension credits for employees on layoff.
When the plans to idle the Belvidere plant were announced in late 2022, Stellantis said it was making every effort to place indefinitely laid-off UAW workers in open full-time positions as they became available. Some displaced workers were offered transfers to other Stellantis manufacturing facilities in Indiana and Ohio.
