(November 23, 2010) KOKOMO, Ind. — Employees at Chrysler's Indiana Transmission Plant II welcomed President Obama and Vice President Biden today as they toured the Kokomo facility to celebrate the company’s recent announcements that it would invest more than $1.1 billion locally for the production of future transmissions and retain nearly 3,500 Indiana jobs.

The  company confirmed that it is looking to invest $843 million in its Indiana Transmission Plants and Kokomo Casting Plant to accommodate the production of a new advanced front-wheel drive automatic transmission for future Chrysler Group vehicles. The investment would fund the installation of equipment and special tooling to modernize the plants. The project would extend the life of both manufacturing facilities and help retain nearly 2,250 jobs.

Chrysler Group will be partnering with Friedrichshafen, Germany-based ZF Group on the next generation front-wheel drive transmission, which is making its designs and technology available to the company and its Kokomo plants.

Earlier this year, Chrysler announced that it would invest $343 million in Kokomo to expand capacity at its existing facilities and support the production of an eight-speed transmission while retaining nearly 1,200 jobs. Together, these investments would make the cty the recipient of the largest investment in a single year in a single community.