NEW YORK – The primary all-electric Jeep SUV for the U.S. would be the 2024 Wagoneer S, beginning at about $72,000 when it is scheduled to go on sale this fall.
The Stellantis-owned model revealed the automobile and pricing Thursday, portraying it as a “new chapter” for the quintessential American SUV model that has struggled with home gross sales lately.
“This represents lots. It’s the first world [all-electric vehicle] inbuilt North America, designed within the U.S. … for the world,” Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa advised CNBC throughout an interview after revealing the automobile. “It’s a milestone in our historical past.”
Filosa, who began main Jeep in December, stated the model is in “improbable form” but it surely’s within the midst of a “transition like all of the automotive manufacturers these days” involving electrification.
Regardless of a slower than anticipated adoption of EVs within the U.S., Filosa stated the model is just not apprehensive about client adoption as a result of its additive to the Jeep’s lineup, which is able to proceed to supply conventional gas-powered SUVs, plug-in hybrid electrical autos and “extended-range” electrical autos beginning subsequent yr.
A “Launch Version” of the Wagoneer S will initially be out there with a 400-volt, 100-kilowatt-hour battery pack able to greater than 300 miles on a single cost, 600 horsepower and 617 pound-feet of torque for a 0-60 mph acceleration of three.4 seconds. It’s able to charging from 20%-80% in 23 minutes utilizing a DC Quick charger, in response to the corporate.
Jeep additionally revealed a Trailhawk off-road efficiency idea of the EV, which Filosa stated “hopefully quickly will grow to be a product.”
Filosa stated cheaper fashions of the Wagoneer S will begin being launched roughly six months after the Launch Version.
The $71,995 beginning worth of the Wagoneer S EV sits between gas-powered variations of the Wagoneer, beginning at about $63,000, and extra luxurious Grand Wagoneer, beginning at roughly $92,000.
Jeep additionally will introduce a brand new unnamed midsize SUV subsequent yr to interchange its discontinued Cherokee, Filosa stated.
He additionally stated the corporate will launch electrical, extended-range variations of the standard gas-powered Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer in 2025. The know-how, which makes use of an engine as a gas-powered generator along with EV batteries, is anticipated to debut on the upcoming Ram Ramcharger pickup truck.
U.S. EV offensive
The Wagoneer S is the start of what Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares this week known as the automaker’s EV offensive for the U.S., together with six to eight all-electric autos this yr.
“There’s a large quantity of alternatives right here within the U.S. We’re simply beginning the offensive of our electrification,” Tavares stated Wednesday throughout a Bernstein investor convention.
For Jeep, the Wagoneer S is anticipated to be adopted by a Wrangler-inspired off-road automobile known as the Recon later this yr and a brand new roughly $25,000 EV “very quickly,” Tavares stated Wednesday with out disclosing extra particulars.
For years, Tavares has been outspoken in regards to the firm being compelled to provide EVs, which price 40% extra, as a result of regulatory necessities and never client demand. On Wednesday, he described EVs as a “cost-cutting train” to make sure the autos are worthwhile.
The EVs are a shift for Jeep within the U.S., the place the model has been specializing in plug-in hybrid electrical autos, or PHEVs, similar to its Wrangler and Grand Cherokee SUVs. The plug-in autos accounted for 17.5% of Jeep’s gross sales this yr.
Filosa stated Jeep, which is at present No. 1 in PHEVs within the U.S., expects to proceed rising gross sales of these autos along with the upcoming EVs.
“Electrification to us to this point has been working very, very properly. Mainly,” he stated through the reveal occasion, “we constructed the PHEV trade. We personal this a part of the market.
Stellantis’ complete PHEV U.S. gross sales final yr was practically 143,000, up 124% in comparison with 2022. Main the way in which was Jeep, together with 67,429 Jeep Wrangler and 45,684 Jeep Grand Cherokee “4xe” SUVs.
Jeep is utilizing 4xe badging as a play on the model’s off-road fame mixed with electrification, together with EVs and PHEVs.
Wagoneer S
The Wagoneer S is Jeep’s first “world” EV, in response to the corporate. The Jeep model’s first EV mannequin known as the Avenger, a small SUV beginning at about 35,000 euros, or about $37,800, went on sale final yr in Europe.
The Wagoneer S, which shall be produced at a plant in Mexico, is predicated on Stellantis’ giant EV platform, which is anticipated to underpin eight autos for the corporate from 2024-2026.
Regardless of sharing the “Wagoneer” identify with Jeep’s present gas-powered mannequin, the five-passenger, two-row EV shares little with its three-row conventional inner combustion engine counterpart aside from some Jeep styling.
Probably the most notable distinction on the outside is a extra fashionable interpretation of the model’s iconic seven-slotted grille, which the EV does not really need for cooling. It is indented and the slots are strong and interconnected with each other in comparison with seven separate slots.
“We reinvented the standard seven-slot grille,” stated Ralph Gilles, Stellantis head of design. “I’m so rattling happy with this.”
The Wagoneer S additionally options a big “R-Wing,” an open spoiler on the again of the SUV. Gilles stated the aim was to not make a “jellybean” like many EVs with good aerodynamics at present being bought within the U.S.
The Wagoneer S is much much less boxy that the gasoline mannequin, aiding in it in being probably the most aerodynamic Jeep ever produced by the model, the corporate stated.
Gilles stated the Wagoneer identify is extra consultant of the luxuriousness of the automobile fairly than a singular design.
Contained in the automobile greater than 45 inches of screens, together with a 12.3-inch middle show, and a mixture of steel, faux leather-based and different sustainable supplies.
Gilles, a longtime famend automobile designer with the corporate, stated wooden was banned from the inside of the automobile. It additionally does not function any chrome on the outside of the SUV. These selections have been made following enter from youthful designers to make the automobile extra sustainable and enticing for younger patrons.
“If that is going to be a inexperienced automobile, we needed to rethink the supplies inside,” Gilles stated. “There was an enormous push for sustainable supplies in all places.”