Stellantis idled the Belvidere plant that built the last-generation Jeep Cherokee in 2023.
Under the leadership of CEO Antonio Filosa, Stellantis is still ramping up its latest business strategy, called the FaSTLAne 2030 plan. That plan involved heavy investment to streamline and scale its manufacturing efforts, and a key component to that lies with the idled Belvidere, Illinois plant. After Stellantis initially stopped production of the Jeep Cherokee KL back in 2023, it moved production of the current Cherokee (KM) to Mexico. Now, the company aims to shift Cherokee production back to the U.S., though on a delayed time frame from what we initially expected.
Instead of the first units rolling off the revamped Belvidere line next year, the company recently announced that “pilot production” of the next-generation Cherokee will kick off in 2028. From there, production of customer-bound units will begin in 2029. Basically, we still have awhile to wait for this new Cherokee, based on the “STLA One” platform the company claims will make it more competitive in the marketplace. To wit, the automaker is investing another $200 million into the Illinois facility, ramping up the total spend to $800 million.
Stellantis says the work to prepare the plant for its next era topped more than $60 million through July 2026, including work on the stamping, body, paint and general assembly areas. Once the plant is up and running, the company says it intends to accommodation all powertrain versions of a new Cherokee across two work shifts.
To be clear, this recent announcement means the existing Cherokee, built in Mexico, will only span a 2-3 year production run, from the 2026 to 2028 or 2029 model years. The new Cherokee, by way of the change from STLA Large (the current architecture) to STLA One will be a generational overhaul, making the current run even shorter than the former Jeep Cherokee/Liberty KJ of the early 2000s.
