Jeep ponders switch to aluminum for next Wrangler body, Marchionne says

PARIS -- The next-generation Jeep Wrangler may be built off a unibody platform, feature smaller and turbocharged engines, and switch to an aluminum body, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne said.

Such significant changes to the hot-selling SUV would likely mean leaving its longtime, historic production site in Toledo, Ohio, Marchionne said today.

In his strongest comments to date about Fiat Chrysler’s future plans for the Wrangler, Marchionnne hinted strongly the next-generation version is likely to be fundamentally different from the venerable off-roader available today.

The next Wrangler, due in 2017, has to lose weight and be powered by smaller engines than its current 3.6-liter V-6 engine in order to help Fiat Chrysler meet stricter U.S. fuel economy rules.

Yet building the off-roader’s current body-on-frame tub out of aluminum, which is under serious consideration, will mean moving Wrangler output away from its current plant in Toledo, Marchionne told reporters during a press conference at the Paris Auto Show.

Marchionne said that the debates that raged inside Ford Motor Co. about adopting an aluminum body on the redesigned 2015 F-150 pickup “are going on inside our house now.”

"One of the things we are debating is whether this thing requires going into a material other than steel," Marchionne told reporters.

“If the solution is aluminum, then I think unfortunately that Toledo is the wrong place, the wrong setup to try and build a Wrangler, because it requires a complete reconfiguring of the assets that would be cost-prohibitive,” Marchionne said. “It would be so outrageously expensive that it would be impossible to try and work out of that facility.”

As indicated by Marchionne’s remarks, Ford’s decision to embrace aluminum on the high-volume F-150 pickup is being closely watched by rivals.

Marchionne hinted that the next Wrangler might switch to unibody construction as he named North American factory alternatives with available capacity. All of the plants he mentioned produce vehicles on unibody platforms.

“One of the things that we are dealing with now is what else do we do with Toledo that fulfills our commitment to the city and to Ohio. I don’t have a doubt that there will be zero impact on head count and employment levels and anything else,” Marchionne said.

Marchionne’s revelations came in response to a question from Automotive News about the future of the Wrangler and his previous pronouncements that he would not build additional manufacturing capacity in North America.

Wrangler production was moved out of Toledo once before -- for a short time in the 1980s to Brampton, Ontario -- when Jeep was owned by American Motors Corp.

Marchionne said development of the next Wrangler is ongoing, yet some things are clear because of FCA’s lack of global resources.

“We firmly believe that we have to downsize the engines that are going into the Wrangler, just in terms of displacements, and then increase the capabilities by putting turbos in and doing other things to that engine,” Marchionne said. “This requires a complete rethink of the architecture. And before we start committing capital to particular places, we need to make sure that we don’t spend an inordinate amount of money trying to get it done. That’s my concern.”

Marchionne’s discussion today of moving Wrangler production from a Toledo factory directly contradicts a statement he made at the Detroit Auto Show in January.

During a press conference there, the FCA CEO said: “We’re still looking for ways to increase the output of that plant because one of the commitments we’ve made is never to produce a Wrangler outside of Toledo. So whatever Wranglers are going to be made are going to be made there as long as I’m the CEO. They’ll not be built anywhere else. So I don’t know whether it gives you all the comfort you need on the Wrangler.”

Switching to a unibody platform to build the new Wrangler might create what would effectively be a modern-day version of the popular Cherokee XJ, which sold over 2 million units worldwide between the late 1980s and 2001.

However, such radical changes to what Jeep brand head Mike Manley constantly calls “the icon of the brand” could be too big a pill to swallow for Jeep’s loyal followers.

The Wrangler, the No. 2 seller in the Jeep lineup, is a direct descendent of the original Willys MB, the ubiquitous military vehicle that helped the Allied armies win World War II. It was first marketed as the CJ -- for civilian Jeep -- in the 1940s. The CJ name was used for decades until the switch to Wrangler in 1986.

Bruce Baumhower, the president of UAW Local 12, which represents hourly workers at Chrysler’s massive Toledo Assembly complex, said a decision that would move Wrangler production out of Toledo would be a slap to workers who have sacrificed to build record numbers of Wranglers to satisfy demand.

“Our members have done everything they’ve been asked to do and more to meet demand for Wrangler, our community has done everything it could to meet demand for Wrangler, and this is just totally unacceptable,” Baumhower said. “They can talk about anything they want to do with how the Wrangler is made -- whether it’s aluminum or a different powertrain or whatever -- but it has to be made in Toledo, in its birthplace.”