Stellantis plans to make more Ram pickups in Mexico, WSJ reports

(Reuters) - Chrysler parent Stellantis is expanding its factory complex in northern Mexico to build Ram 1500 pickup trucks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Stellantis has been building additional factory space next to its existing plant in Saltillo, Mexico, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Two roughly half-kilometer-long (0.31-mile-long) buildings have been constructed in the past several months, according to satellite images reviewed by the newspaper.

Stellantis said it has been making other variants of the Ram pickup trucks in Mexico and that no other announcements have been made about the production of Ram 1500.

The French-Italian automaker said in a statement it recently disclosed plans to invest more than $235 million at the Sterling Heights assembly plant in Michigan to build future electric versions of the pickup.

Stellantis will continue to make Ram trucks at its Michigan plant, it said.

It is not clear if the planned factory space in Saltillo would be used to make battery- or gas-powered versions of Ram trucks, the WSJ report said.

The report on Mexico plans comes as the United Auto Workers union is eying multiple U.S. strikes against Stellantis, alleging it had failed to keep the commitments it made in last year's contract signed after a six-week strike that cost it about 750 million euros ($816.90 million) in profit.

In August, Stellantis announced plans to lay off as many as 2,450 factory workers from its Warren Truck assembly plant outside of Detroit after ending production of the Ram 1500 Classic truck.

($1 = 0.9181 euros) (This story has been corrected to add the dropped word 'more' in the headline, and to clarify that Stellantis makes other models of Ram vehicles in Mexico, in paragraph 4)

(Reporting by Shivani Tanna and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Rashmi Aich)