BELVIDERE, Ill. (AP) - DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group Wednesday launched production of the 2007 Jeep Patriot compact SUV, one of the new products it is counting on to boost sluggish sales.
The Jeep Patriot is the company's 10th all-new vehicle this year and the third introduced at the Belvidere assembly plant, following the Dodge Caliber hatchback and the Jeep Compass crossover.
It comes as Chrysler sales are down from 2005 and inventories of unsold pickups and sport utility vehicles are high. In the first 11 months of this year, the group's sales were 5.9 percent lower than the same period last year.
Chrysler Group said the Belvidere plant, just east of Rockford and 70 miles northwest of Chicago, has become a flagship for its adoption of flexible manufacturing. The 41-year-old facility received $419 million in upgrades last year to give it the flexibility to make several different vehicles on the same line.
''Thanks to Belvidere's ability to build multiple models off one assembly line, we expect the production of three all-new models to cost significantly less than the initial investment we made in the plant to build one product,'' said Frank Ewasyshyn, executive vice president for manufacturing
Belvidere is Chrysler's first assembly plant to use a body shop made up entirely of robotics. Only the robots' ''hands'' need to change to build the different models. The company said the tool change is done automatically, within the time it takes to cycle from one vehicle to the next.