Production of the next generation Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen will apparently be moving from
New Jersey Delaware to Detroit alongside the Jeep Grand Cherokee at Chrysler's Jefferson North Assembly Plant. The new models are expected by the end of 2009 and preliminary work has begun to reconfigure the plant to accommodate them. The Durango/Aspen will evidently share a platform with the Grand Cherokee, while the absence of the soon-to-be-cancelled Commander will free up plenty of space at the Jefferson North plant for all three models, and possibly the yet-to-be-named JC49 crossover.
Since other SUVs like the Explorer are moving away from body-on-frame designs, it seems probable that all the Chrysler models will use the next generation of the Grand Cherokees unit-body platform. If the Durango/Aspen move to a new platform at the end of the 2009, that would mean a very short run for the hybrid versions of those vehicles, which are due out in the second half of 2008.
[Source: Detroit Free Press]
