Chrysler to invest $1.8B in Detroit factory

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan: Chrysler LLC Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda says his company will invest $1.8 billion into a Detroit assembly plant, retooling it to make a new car-based sport utility vehicle.

LaSorda told Detroit radio station WWJ-AM early Wednesday the money will go for tooling and a flexible body shop at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant. That plant now makes the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The new vehicle will be more fuel efficient than the truck-based Cherokee and will be equipped with the company's new Phoenix line of fuel-efficient engines.

LaSorda says the factory should be retooled by the end of next year and will start cranking out the new vehicles early in 2010.