Chrysler Group’s Windsor minivan facility in Ontario, Canada will be idled for 12 weeks to pave way for upgrades in the first and second quarters of 2015 as the carmaker prepares the site for the output of the next-generation van. The announcement was made by Chrysler Group chief executive Sergio Marchionne during a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at Chrysler headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich.
Marchionne said that the carmaker should create detailed plans to ensure that it still could produce the current minivan until the shutdown. The carmaker currently offers two minivans in North America -- the Chrysler Town & Country and the Dodge Grand Caravan. The latter will soon be phased out with Marchionne saying that the new van will be a Chrysler.
He, however, did not say if the new van still be known as the Town & Country. During the conference, reiterated that Fiat Fiat Chrysler would start trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 13, and would be registered in the Netherlands.
Fiat Chrysler will have a tax domicile in the United Kingdom and will have operational bases in Auburn Hills, Mich., and in Turin, Italy.
The Italian prime minister remarked that it does not matter to him where Fiat is based, since what is more important is that the new company will still provide jobs to Italians. Marchionne, on the other hand, remarked that Chrysler's alliance with Fiat will in the end "breathe life" into the Italian industry.
