The Mitsubishi plant in central Illinois will be skipping its traditional summer production shutdown for the first time this year, due to a new order for rental-fleet vehicles.

Workers at the plant in Normal learned Thursday that they won’t be idled for a week or two, as they normally are in the summer.

A spokesman for Mitsubishi Motors North America tells The (Bloomington) Pantagraph that’s because of an order for almost 1,200 Endeavors, the plant’s midsize crossover SUV.

Spokesman Dan Irvin says the shutdown is normally used for maintenance and model changeovers. But he says the only way to get the SUV order done is to eliminate the shutdown.