Increased demand for Jeep’s Wrangler and Cherokee has transformed the brand’s Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio, which this week, will celebrate something special: building 500,000 Jeeps in one year for the first time.
Production in Toledo has nearly doubled compared to 2013, when the new Cherokee was being introduced, and is a third higher than its previous all-time high, in 2007, when 371,911 vehicles rolled off its assembly line.
The only plant in North America that currently beats Jeep’s factory is Nissan’s in Smyrna, Tennessee, which will produce 601,276 vehicles, 35 percent up from last year. According to the Automotive News Data Center, production at other North American plants, such as VW’s Puebla, Mexico, Toyota’s in Georgetown, Kentucky and Honda’s in Marysville, Ohio, is down this year.
Until November 30, Jeep sales in the US, its biggest market, were up 44 percent to 629,074 vehicles, with the Grand Cherokee being the brand’s best seller and the Wrangler and Cherokee trailing it by a few thousand units.
Correction: The Toledo plant is indeed in Ohio, not Toronto as previously mentioned. Thanks for pointing this out.
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