With the nine-speed automatic no longer a hot product for Chrysler cars and minivans, Stellantis is selling the plant that made them for years, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal. Production actually ended in June.
The Tipton Transmission Plant, which only started production ten years ago—in April 2014—is on a 103-acre site with three buildings (plant, power house, and warehouse). It made nine-speed automatics for the Jeep Cherokee, Chrysler 200, and future Jeep Compass and Renegade, Chrysler Pacifica, and Ram ProMaster City. Nine-speed production fell enough to move the equipment for them to Kokomo and continue production there; most of the employees at Tipton moved over to Kokomo as well. The entire property is for sale.
The closure and sale of Tipton Transmission was part of the negotiations with the UAW, which saved the Belvidere plant. Tipton Transmission had a tumultuous history; it was meant to open in 2007 as Germany-based DaimlerChrysler delegated its construction and operation to the German transmission maker Getrag. However, when Chrysler changed hands, they withdrew from the project, claiming Getrag had not arranged its financing properly, and construction stopped in 2008. There were a few plans for other companies to use the site and buildings; but finally Fiat Chrysler bought and finished the factory to make nine-speed automatics.
The nine-speed automatic, engineered by German’s ZF, was an impressive transmission: light and compact, it had a stunning range of gears. First was at 4.71:1 (compared with the Chrysler 62TE’s 4.13:1); its seventh gear almost perfectly matched the 62TE’s 0.69:1 overdrive, and both had fifth-gear overdrives, but the nine-speed went on to a 0.48:1 top gear ratio. The range was so wide some customers complained they never got to use ninth gear, a “problem” that may have been solved with different axle ratios. The transmission did have teething troubles at Honda, Land Rover, and Jeep, the first users, but eventually bugs were worked out. One motivation for Chrysler to make the transmission in-house was giving it more control over the hardware, to more quickly resolve issues.
