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After a month-long bankruptcy during which all its plants were on standby, Chrysler is starting to switch the lights back on at its plants – beginning with the Conner Avenue plant in Detroit that makes the Dodge Viper.
“At this time, we cannot give exact timing in regards to the start of production at our other manufacturing facilities,” the automaker said in a statement. It shut down all its plants after filing for bankruptcy on April 30. Executives have said most plants will be back up and running by the end of June.
Chrysler will initially start manufacturing more 2009 model year vehicles before switching to 2010 production during a normal shutdown in July.
Chrysler’s Conner Avenue Assembly plant employs about 115 people. Chrysler spokeswoman Shawn Morgan told the Detroit Free Press that the Viper operations will remain part of Chrysler’s newly Fiat-owned operations. Previous to filing for bankruptcy, Chrysler executives wanted to sell the Viper brand.
Chrysler sold 44 Vipers in May, down 65 percent compared with May of last year. Sales of the Viper are down about 44 percent for the first five months of this year, to 289 vehicles, compared with 515 during the same time period last year. In the meantime, GM’s Chevrolet Corvette is down almost 53 percent so far this year, selling a total of 6102 vehicles.
Source: Automotive News, The Detroit Free Press
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