Trenton South

Floor Space: 822,000 square feet

Acreage: 136 acres

Product:

• 3.6-liter V-6 Pentastar Upgrade - Chrysler Pacifica; Jeep Wrangler; Jeep Gladiator

Employment: 672 (564 hourly; 108 salaried)

Union Local: UAW Local 372, 412 and 889

Plant History: In 2007, the Company announced a $730 million investment to produce a new fuel efficient V-6 engine, known as the Pentastar engine. The 822,000-square-foot engine plant produces the most advanced six-cylinder engine in the history of the Company, with an optimized integration of select technologies that deliver refinement, fuel efficiency and performance. The Pentastar delivers a fuel efficiency improvement of up to 8 percent on average when compared with previous Company V-6 engines.

The Pentastar engine was first introduced in the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the promise that it would streamline V-6 engine offerings from seven variations to only one. With the introduction of the 3.0-liter Pentastar engine's debut in the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Wrangler, an exclusive to China, that promise was fulfilled. The Pentastar engine architecture powers 16 models across 11 segments – from mid-size car to full-size commercial van.

On June 30, 2022, the Company announced a $24.7 million investment to retool the south plant to be a flexible engine line, capable of producing the two variations of the 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 engine. Once retooling is complete, the Pentastar production line at the north plant will be decommissioned by the end of 2022 and all 3.6-liter engine production at the complex will be consolidated at the south facility. 

In September 2024, the last Pentastar Classic engine was built. There were more than 5.5 million of the Pentastar Classic built at Trenton since 2010. 

Awards
The Trenton South Engine Plant was awarded a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Green Building System certification for meeting the highest environmental standards in March 2010. At the time, Trenton was one of only four auto manufacturing facilities to receive a LEED rating of any kind and the only engine manufacturing facility in the world to achieve the honor.

Trenton North

Floor Space: 2.1 million square feet

Acreage: 136 acres

Union Local: UAW Local 372, 412 and 889  

Plant History: The Trenton North Engine Plant was completed and production started in 1952. The plant underwent a major expansion in 1969. The plant ceased building engines in May 2011. At the time the plant was idled, it had built more than 38 million engines. 

In June 2011, the Company announced that it would invest $114 million to repurpose one-fifth or nearly 400,000 square feet of the plant for the production of core components to support increased capacity of the Pentastar V-6 engine. On Nov. 15, 2012, it was announced that an additional $40 million would be invested to add a flexible production line to run both the Pentastar engine and the Tigershark (I-4) engine.

In May 2013, Trenton began producing the 3.2-liter Pentastar that powered the all-new 2014 Jeep Cherokee.

The Company announced on Aug. 7, 2013, that it would invest $52 million in its engine plants in Trenton and Dundee, Mich., to increase capacity of the Tigershark engine, creating nearly 298 new positions at the Trenton plant. Of that, Trenton North received $11.5 million to add an assembly line for the four-cylinder Tigershark engine. The remaining $40.5 million converted a line at Dundee to machine cranks, heads and blocks to support Tigershark production at Trenton.

On April 26, 2016, the Company announced that it would invest $74.7 million to retool the north plant to produce the next generation four-cylinder engine, retaining 245 jobs. 

On June 30, 2022, Stellantis announced that production of the Pentastar Upgrade will transition to the south plant  and the production line at the north plant will be decommissioned by the end of 2022. The facility has been repurposed for warehousing and other non-manufacturing opportunities. 

(Updated: June 2024)

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