After the new Ford Bronco seemed to pull the rug out from under the Jeep Wrangler’s uncontested success, the automaker seems ready to fire back.
On Thursday, Jeep unveiled not one, but two monumental vehicles: the luxury Grand Wagoneer Concept and Wrangler 4xe. Both pave the way for the brand’s future; the production version of the Grand Wagoneer SUV will top out over $100K, “likely making it the brand’s highest priced vehicle,” according to CNBC, and the Wrangler 4xe will be the first plug-in hybrid model for the increasingly popular off-roader, showing a delayed but serious commitment to electrification.
As Jeep cited in a press release, the Grand Wagoneer Concept is really a showpiece for its upcoming, reimagined Wagoneer line, a gas guzzling model that was discontinued in the ‘90s. The company wrote that the lineup, which will include a portfolio of vehicles under the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer names, “will define ‘American Premium’” — alluding to the fact that these will be large, luxury SUVs intended to take on vehicles like the Lincoln Navigator, Cadillac Escalade and Range Rover.
While the $100,000-plus price tag making headlines is for a “fully loaded model,” according Christian Meunier, global president of Jeep, per CNBC, the entire lineup will still cost an arm and a leg. The lower-priced Wagoneer models will reportedly start around $60K.
The more surprising part of the Grand Wagoneer Concept is that it showcases a plug-in hybrid powertrain, which isn’t top of mind for most oversized luxury SUVs, but does fall in line with Jeep’s aforementioned plan of electrifying every model by 2022 — though now the company says that’s coming “in the next few years.”
That leads us to the Wrangler 4xe, which gets its name from a reworking of 4×4 to add the designation that its power — well, some of it — is coming from two electric motors. As Car and Driver made clear in its assessment, compared to other Wranglers, this plug-in hybrid is not only more powerful than existing models, it would have more torque than that V8 Wrangler concept, with 375 horsepower and 470 lb.-ft. of torque. The price, however, hasn’t yet been announced.
That said, you’ve got plenty of time to look into the details of both should you be interested in buying, as the Wrangler 4xe isn’t slated to hit showrooms in the U.S. until sometime in early 2021, and Jeep is only promising the new Wagoneer line sometime “next year.”
Watch the reveal of both vehicles here:
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