Chrysler To Give Kokomo Plant Green Makeover

The Detroit Free Press:  Chrysler is investing $300 million in a Kokomo, Indiana plant.  The plant, part of a larger Chrysler complex there,  will build a new eight-speed transmission designed to improve fuel efficiency.  The upgraded plant will preserve approximately 1,200 jobs in Kokomo and improve the fuel economy of the Chrysler line of cars by 25 percent by 2014.  Chrysler currently trails its major competitors in fuel efficiency.

Chrysler has been building its transmissions in Indiana since the late fifties.  The city of Kokomo has granted a generous tax abatement on the new machinery the company will install in the plant in return for the preservation of jobs.