The opening of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Kokomo Engine Plant has been pushed back to the end of 2021 due to delays caused by the COVID19 pandemic.
Company officials in March first announced the plant would open sometime in the first three months of 2021. Now, that date has been delayed to the last three months of next year.
Jodi Tinson, FCA’s communications director for manufacturing and labor, said in an email the retiming of the opening was due to the company shuttering for about 8 weeks earlier this year due to the pandemic.
However, work is well underway to convert the former Indiana Transmission Plant II into the new Kokomo Engine Plant.
Tinson said the building has been completely denuded of the older equipment, and interior walls and offices have been removed. Old concrete on the shop floor is being broken up and removed in preparation for new concrete. Steel is being raised to add a 30,000-square-foot addition to provide more manufacturing space.
FCA has also started onboarding its launch team to determine the training plan and training schedules for employees, as well as the manufacturing process. The team will work with machine builders on machine design, and work to optimize the plant layout and the design of the administrative building.
FCA confirmed in March it was renovating the 600,000-square-foot building on north Ind. 931 to manufacture the Global Medium Engine Turbo 4 (GMET4).
The move marks a $400 million investment in the facility that will retain about 1,000 jobs and add nearly 200 more, bringing the total FCA employment in Indiana to over 8,300.
Once it opens, the facility will be the source of all U.S. production of the engine, which is currently being built in Termoli, Italy.
Brad Clark, vice president and head of engine and transmission manufacturing for FCA North America, said in March the plant had made nearly 4 million transmissions from 2003 to 2018, when the company began to shutter the facility. It sat idle for a few months before work began to convert it to the engine plant.
That engine is currently an option in the Jeep Wrangler and Cherokee, one of the company’s most iconic brands.
Mark Stewart, chief operating officer for FCA North America, said in March the engine is one of FCA’s most fuel efficient, and still offers 270 horsepower and 295 pounds of torque, along with low emissions.
“It’s an amazing, amazing turbo-4 engine,” he said.
“It gives our customers the torque and the power that they love in our engine, and one that is super fuel efficient.”
The GMET4 will also play a pivotal part in expanding FCA’s electric engine options, Stewart said, since a significant number of new technologies can be applied to it, making it relevant for future developments.
“It will play an important role in our plans to offer electric engine options across 30 nameplates that FCA will bring to markets around the world by 2022,” he said.
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