FCA Makes A Significant Investment In Polish Plant For Building Electrified Vehicles

This week Fiat Chrysler Automobiles confirmed that it intended to refurbish a Poland plant, where it will build new models for the Jeep, Fiat, and Alfa Romeo brands. The vehicles built there will include hybrid and all-electric vehicles. While FCA has confirmed the factory's investment, it's unclear if vehicles built there will be for Europe alone or if they will be sold outside of Europe.

The first vehicles are expected to roll off the factory's assembly line in the second half of 2022. FCA is pushing hard towards electrification and recently announced some electrified versions of popular Jeep vehicles, including the incredibly popular Wrangler. Both the Wrangler and the Renegade will be offered in plug-in hybrid versions carrying the 4XE logo.

FCA plans to offer electrified options across its entire Jeep portfolio and previously stated it would invest $10.5 billion into electrification by 2022. While FCA did not comment on how much money it was investing into the Polish manufacturing facility, Polish deputy prime minister Jaroslaw Gowin announced on Twitter that the investment into the Tychy plant in southern Poland was almost $203 million.

Gowin also said that there were potentials for multiple increases in expenditure in the plant in the future. Another interesting tidbit about Poland is that 2021 marks the 100th year the company has done business in the country. The Polish plant spans 29 million square feet and has around 2500 employees. Currently, the Fiat 500 is produced there along with the Lancia Ypsilon supermini.

In 2019, the plant produced about 263,000 vehicles, which are exported globally to 58 different markets. It's unclear if any of the Jeep 4XE hybrid models destined for America will be produced at the Polish plant.