Jeep Is Not Moving To China, Says Chrysler

Chrysler repeated today that Jeep was not moving to China.

The car company found itself at the center of a political controversy earlier this week when Mitt Romney released an ad claiming that Chrysler was moving its Jeep production to China. The auto company, which already said in a blog post on October 25 that the statement was false, said today in an email to employees that Jeep was not moving to China.

Chrysler Group LLC Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne wrote in an email:

“I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China … Jeep assembly lines will remain in operation in the United States and will constitute the backbone of the brand. It is inaccurate to suggest anything different.”

In Romney’s ad the GOP candidate claims that Chrysler had been purchased by “the Italians” and that the company was moving all of its Jeep production to China.

The ad says: “Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China.”

The ad has been called an outright lie by the Obama campaign while others say that the statements are merely misleading. Fiat currently owns 58.5% of Chrysler and the company has said that it may start to build Jeeps in China.

Marchionne explained that Chrysler plans to expand production to China in order to satisfy the local market. That would have no effect on American jobs. According to Marchionne, Chrysler is actually expanding its production in the United States.

Marchionne said:

“We are working to establish a global enterprise and previously announced our intent to return Jeep production to China, the world’s largest auto market, in order to satisfy local market demand, which would not otherwise be accessible …. We will invest more than $1.7 billion to develop and produce the next-generation Jeep SUV, the successor of the Jeep Liberty — including $500 million directly to tool and expand our Toledo Assembly Complex and will be adding about 1,100 jobs on a second shift by 2013.”

Do you think Mitt Romney’s ad was misleading? Was it an outright lie?

Here’s Romney’s original Jeep ad.

Here’s the ad Obama put out in response to Romney’s Jeep ad.