News: Ford And Chrysler Reduce Summer Shutdowns

Dodge Durango

Both Ford and Chrysler have just announced plans to reduce or even eliminate their usual summer shutdowns at various plants in North America. This will allow both auto manufacturers the ability to increase production on key models whose sales have been strong throughout the beginning of the year.

Ford plans to reduce its summer shutdowns from two weeks to just one at 20 of its North American plants. This move will increase their production of cars and light-duty trucks by 40,000 units.

An additional 200,000 units of capacity will be realized from production changes already in place at the Chicago Assembly Plant, Flat Rock Assembly Plant and Kansas City Assembly Plant. This will bring their total increased capacity to 240,000 units. They’re also adding 3,500 new jobs by year-end.

The vehicles affected by reduced summer shutdowns will include top sellers like the Ford Explorer, Ford Fusion and Ford F-series pickups. Sales of the Ford Fusion alone have increased 25 percent over the same period last year highlighting the need for increased production.

Meanwhile, Chrysler is following suit as they see an overall sales increase of 9 percent through April when compared with the same period last year. They plan on keeping three of their plants open all summer long. The Jefferson North plant, Conner Avenue plant and Toledo North plants won’t see a summer shutdown at all this year.

Jefferson North currently produces the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango while Conner Avenue assembles the Viper. The Toledo North plant is getting ready for production of the new 2014 Jeep Cherokee.

Another four of Chrysler’s assembly plants will have just one week summer shutdowns while the remaining plants will still be getting the traditional two weeks. When it comes to engine and transmission plants, only one plant will have a week long shutdown with the rest remaining open throughout the summer.

Nicole Wakelin fell in love with cars as a teenager when she got to go for a ride in a Ferrari. It was red and it was fast and that was all that mattered. Game over. She considers things a bit more carefully now, but still has a weakness for fast, beautiful cars. Nicole also writes for NerdApproved and GeekMom.