Production Of Popular Jeep Gladiator Halted Due To Chip Shortage

The global microchip shortage has claimed its latest victim. Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, announced that it will halt production of Jeep Gladiator next week. This is the first time Jeep will pause production of the Jeep Gladiator, but the scarcity of microchips makes full-scale production difficult.

Jeep’s Toledo South Assembly Plant in Ohio will fall silent next week as it’s time to take a break from Jeep Gladiator production. Due to the limited supply of microchips brought out by the COVID-19 pandemic, automakers have had to make very tough decisions. Jeep is no stranger to pausing production because of the global chip shortage. Jeep Cherokee production was paused earlier this year at the Belvidere, Illinois plant, however, Jeep plans to resume production next week running only one shift. Jeep will also revive Compass production next week at their Toluca, Mexico plant.

Stellantis spokeswoman Jodi Tinson informed Detriot News, “Stellantis continues to work closely with our suppliers to mitigate the manufacturing impacts caused by the various supply chain issues facing our industry.” This supply chain nightmare to keep car production running to meet demand is almost impossible in the COVID-19 economy. Stellantis is running these rolling closures of plants to strategically control the supply of their vehicles to meet predicted demand.

Flagship products like the Jeep Wrangler are given priority of the scarce supply while more niche products like the Gladiator suffer. This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find a new Gladiator on a dealer lot. Jeep will resume production when they need to build more Gladiators for customers once the current stock is depleted. Until then, Jeep will build what it can with the limited microchip supply.

Source: https://www.motor1.com/news/523818/jeep-gladiator-production-stopped/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=RSS-category-industry