CHELSEA, Mich. – Jim Morrison smiles as he hears the piercing noise of rocks scraping the undercarriage of the Jeep he is driving.

“A very powerful factor for us at Jeep is to show {our capability},” he says scaling a rock hill at a proving floor for Stellantis, Jeep’s dad or mum firm. “That is what took us a bit longer than everyone else. It needed to be a real Jeep first.”

The automobile Morrison, vice chairman of Jeep’s North American operations, is driving is the 2021 Grand Cherokee L. It is a new mannequin for the model that is scheduled to reach in showrooms subsequent week as Jeep’s first three-row automobile in additional than a decade.

By increasing the Grand Cherokee from a two-row to three-row SUV, Jeep is in search of to draw new consumers and retain present homeowners who beforehand needed to depart the model in the event that they wished an even bigger automobile. It is a key development space for the model amid an inflow of latest opponents such because the well-received Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade SUVs.

“It will actually assist us develop the top-end of the enterprise , which is sweet to draw new clients,” Morrison stated, including the Grand Cherokee already has a buyer loyalty price of almost 50%.”That is good for the profitability of the corporate.”

Common pricing for the Grand Cherokee is all the time close to the highest of the midsize SUV phase towards many automobiles with three rows, in response to knowledge from Cox Automotive.

Including the Grand Cherokee L will push the SUV’s common pricing and earnings even greater, in response to Matt Degen, an editor with the automotive knowledge and insights firm.

“They’ve wanted this automobile,” he stated. “Making the Grand Cherokee a three-row SUV is mostly a no brainer for the model.”

Beginning pricing for the Grand Cherokee L will likely be between about $37,000 and $66,000. The highest-end pricing is about $9,000 over a comparable two-row mannequin of the present automobile.

The common value a shopper paid for a Grand Cherokee final month was $45,694, in response to Cox. That is already about $2,600 greater than the common midsize SUV.

Previous to the coronavirus pandemic shuttering meeting crops final yr, Jeep’s U.S. gross sales had topped 900,000 SUVs for 2 consecutive years.

Degen believes Jeep’s home gross sales may high 1 million within the foreseeable future with the additions of the Grand Cherokee L in addition to the bigger Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer SUVs which can be scheduled to go on sale later this yr.

Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, is considerably increasing Jeep manufacturing within the U.S. The automaker spent $1.6 billion to transform a former engine advanced right into a full meeting plant for the 2021 Grand Cherokee. It was the town’s first new meeting plant in 30 years.

The automaker is also including manufacturing of the Wagoneer fashions at a plant in suburban Detroit, bringing the variety of crops producing Jeeps within the U.S. to 6.

“Jeep is a kind of crown jewels amongst automotive manufacturers,” Degen stated. “The Jeep model itself is absolutely, actually necessary to Stellantis general, particularly for American gross sales.”

By the tip of this yr, Jeep is anticipated to develop its lineup from six automobiles to 9, together with the Grand Cherokee L and Wagoneer automobiles. That excludes new plug-in hybrid fashions such because the current Wrangler 4xe and upcoming Grand Cherokee.

The 2021 Grand Cherokee L is recognizable as a Jeep however includes a new exterior design with horizonal LED daytime working lights, a wider seven-slot grille and different design components that debuted final yr on the corporate’s Grand Wagoneer SUV idea.

The automobile comes normal with a 3.6-liter V-6 engine with 290 horsepower and 257 lb.-ft. of torque. A 5.7-liter V-8 engine rated at 357 horsepower and 390 foot-pounds of torque additionally will likely be out there.

The inside of the Grand Cherokee L options 8.4-inch or 10.1-inch touchscreen shows in addition to a ten.25-inch frameless digital driver info display screen behind the steering wheel. It’s out there in six-seat and seven-seat configurations.

The corporate additionally plans to supply hands-free driving expertise within the automobile in late-2021 on 2022 model-year automobiles.