Chrysler to take 300 sedan assembly to Ontario

Chrysler is moving the assembly of a version of its 300 sedan to Ontario from Austria as it strives to return to profitable times. The move from Austria to Ontario will cost Chrysler as much as $1.2 billion.

Giving the breakup of the expenditure, a report said that about $500 million is to be spent on Chrysler's Brampton plant to build the 300 LX model. The rest will be spent on the car's design, engineering, and supplier development. The production of the 300 LX model is scheduled to begin in 2010 at Brampton, where about 4,000 workers on three shifts now make the 300, Dodge Magnum, and Dodge Charger. The Charger and 300 were Chrysler's top-selling cars in the US in the first half of the fiscal. Meanwhile, the Brampton factory is scheduled to add the two-door Dodge Challenger Coupe next year, said the report.

The shift to Brampton is part of Chrysler's efforts to snip manufacturing and other costs after a $680 million 2006 loss. In May 2007, DaimlerChrysler AG had announced that it was selling an 80.1 percent stake in its money-losing Chrysler group to Cerberus Capital Management LP.

The shifting of assembly from Austria to Ontario is expected to help Chrysler save money by not having to retool Magna's Graz facility. The shifting is said to have no bearing on Chrysler's 300C production at DaimlerChrysler's plant in Beijing.

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