Chrysler said today that it is cutting production of its high-horsepower and high-priced SRT Viper and will reassign some of the employees who work at its Conner Avenue Assembly Plant.
The production cuts, effective Monday, result from lower-than-expected demand for the supercar.
So far this year, Chrysler has sold 426 Vipers, according to Autodata. The company was planning to build up to 2,000 annually.
Chrysler spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said the company is still calculating how many employees will be reassigned and declined to say how much production will be reduced.
The automaker employs about 170 at the Detroit plant, where it is capable of producing as many as 12 Vipers per day.
The 2013 Viper debuted at the April 2012 at the New York auto show.
At the time, Chrysler hoped it would ship the first Vipers before the year ended, but the shipments did not occur until spring.
The base price for the Viper is $99,395 and $122,995 for the GTS model.
The Viper has an all-aluminum, mid-front 8.4-liter V10 engine that delivers 640 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque.
Introduced as the Dodge Viper in 1992, it was sold through 2010, when the automaker’s financial crisis caused Chrysler to put the brakes on production.
The return of the Viper was heralded by Ralph Giles, CEO of the SRT brand and senior vice president of design, as a symbol of Chrysler’s resurgence.
LosiPatista
