The jobs and investments include spending $212 million to upgrade two of its plants in Kokomo and $162 million to purchase a facility and equipment in nearby Tipton.
Chrysler CEO and chairman Sergio Marchionne said with this announcement, the Auburn Hills-based automaker has confirmed investments of more than $1.6 billion in Kokomo at all four area facilities in central Indiana – Kokomo Transmission, Kokomo Casting, Indiana Transmission I and Indiana Transmission II.
“Our investments in Kokomo and Tipton are a tribute to the character of the men and women of Chrysler who survived a near-fatal experience and have embraced the challenge of building an enterprise that is able to compete with the best in the world,” Marchionne said, according to prepared remarks.
Chrysler said it will hire 400 workers at its plants in Kokomo and 850 workers at the new plant, which is located about 20 miles south of its other facilities. Chrysler currently employs more than 6,100 in Kokomo.
The Kokomo plants are the only facilities in North America that Chrysler produces transmissions, including the highly-anticipated nine-speed transmission. The new transmission is expected to help spur sales of the recently unveiled Jeep Cherokee, Dodge Dart and a redesigned Chrysler 200 mid-size sedan.
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Hey, wanna buy John Z. DeLorean's house in California? It's not as cool as you'd think it is. But it's pretty nice. And crazy expensive.
