The Belvidere Assembly Plant (BVAP) is an idled automobile production facility owned and operated by Stellantis North America. The factory opened in 1965 in Belvidere, Illinois, United States, and last assembled the Jeep Cherokee.
History
The factory was built in 1964 and 1965 in the south part of Belvidere, Illinois, adjacent to U.S. Route 20. The first production line vehicle was made on July 7, 1965, assembling the new Chrysler C platform vehicles.[2]
Less than 2 years after it opened, the plant was impacted by the 1967 Belvidere tornado, which passed nearby. While the plant was not directly hit, 300 new cars and 100 employee cars were destroyed.[3]
The Belvidere Assembly Plant is adjacent to the Chrysler-operated Belvidere Satellite Stamping Plant. The stamping plant produces sheet metal parts for the production line.[4] The factory has 5,300,000 square feet (490,000 m2) of floor space over 280 acres (1.1 km2) of land, and had produced 5.9 million vehicles by the end of the 1993 model year.[5]
In 2006, the factory became the first Chrysler plant to use a body shop consisting entirely of robotics. The 780 robots in the body shop could make necessary tool changes automatically, within a 47-second cycle time. The factory is capable of building three models of vehicles as well as test-building a fourth vehicle.[6]
The Simulation (SIM) Room comprises 38,000 square feet (3,500 m2) of the factory and is used to create a miniature production process and to test the layout of job stations, and creating standard work instructions. A two-foot grid is painted on the floor to measure dimensions and employee walk-time during simulated production and efficiency modeling.[7]
In October 2010, it was announced that $600 million were to be invested into the Belvidere Assembly Plant in preparation for 2012 model year vehicles to be built there.[8] The Dodge Dart (PF) was announced in December 2011 to be built at the plant.
On December 9, 2022, Stellantis announced that Belvidere Assembly would be placed into an "indefinite closure" effective February 28, 2023.[9][10] The Belvidere site was a point of contention in 2023 United Auto Workers strike, with the United Auto Workers and Stellantis negotiating a future use for the site.[11] The resulting contract, announced on October 28, 2023, includes the reopening of the plant in early 2025,[12] reportedly to assemble a new mid-size Ram pickup truck.[13] A planned expansion would also add an electric vehicle battery plant, creating 1,100 new jobs at the facility.[14]
On November 9, 2023, President Joe Biden visited Belvidere and held a speech with local UAW leaders on the reopening of the plant.[15]
In August 2024, Stellantis has said that it was delaying investments in the plant.[16]
Labor
In 1985, there were around 4,000 employees working at the plant.[17] At the start of the Neon car production, there were 3,250 hourly and 250 salaried employees working as of 10 November 1993.[5]
2,650 employees were working at the factory at the start of 2007 model year Jeep Compass production,[6] up from 1,700 in 2005 when one shift of employees was in place.[7] However, the third shift, which was first instituted in 2006, was discontinued in 2008.[18] The plant was idled during the Chrysler bankruptcy filing and became a one-shift operation from July 2009.[19] A "temporary" second shift was added by October 2009.[20] In May 2019, Chrysler laid off 1,403 employees after the "C" shift was eliminated.[21]
Production of vehicles dropped from 263,521 in 2008 to 84,609 in 2009.[22]
The workforce is represented by the United Auto Workers, Local 1268 and 1761. There have been two UAW-ordered strikes in the plant's history. In 1973, there was a nine-day strike over the right to turn down overtime, pension funding, and health and safety measures. In 1981, there was a nine-day strike to receive pay parity with Ford and GM workers. Chrysler proposed eliminating several job classifications so workers could be required to perform more than one task.[17]
In 2009, the future of the plant was uncertain.[23] Haig Stoddard, a Global Insight analyst, cited the plant as one of three plants that had been considered in a plan to close one plant.[24]
Awards
In 2005, the factory was the recipient of Plant Engineering's Top Plant Award for efficient turnover in the changeover from Neon production to Caliber production.[25]
