Jeep Grand Wagoneer SUV to top $100,000 as brand’s luxury flagship

DETROIT – Fiat Chrysler’s long-awaited Jeep Grand Wagoneer SUV will excessive $100,000 – most likely making it the mannequin’s highest priced car as a result of it makes an try to compete in opposition to the Cadillac Escalade, Land Rover Fluctuate Rover and others.

The model new large SUV can be the stablemate of 1 different model generally known as the Wagoneer, which is ready to start at about $60,000 when the vehicles go on sale subsequent 12 months, in line with Christian Meunier, worldwide president of Jeep. The six-figure ticket for the Grand Wagoneer is likely to be for a very loaded model, he acknowledged. 

“It’s clearly the return of a premium American icon,” Meunier acknowledged all through a media event ahead of Thursday’s unveiling of an concept mannequin of the resurrected SUVs. “Wagoneer will improve to develop right into a portfolio of vehicles that may redefine American premium whereas delivering a novel purchaser experience.”

The Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer names have been beforehand utilized by Jeep for giant SUVs from 1963 until 1991. The company had promised to resurrect the Wagoneer establish for nearly a decade as a choice to increased compete throughout the extraordinarily worthwhile large SUV part.

The SUVs is likely to be offered in two lengths and compete throughout the mainstream and opulent SUV segments, Meunier acknowledged. It’s a associated method to how General Motors, the commerce chief in large SUVs, sells its vehicles all through the Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac producers.

The one totally different Jeep to excessive $100,000 is the current Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, a low amount, high-performance mannequin of the SUV with Fiat Chrysler’s Hellcat V8 engine.

It’s unclear whether or not or not the Grand Wagoneer is likely to be a separate model or a high-end mannequin of the Wagoneer, which was discontinued in 1983. The company declined to produce additional particulars about how the vehicles is likely to be positioned. It’s attainable the Grand Wagoneer is likely to be a premium mannequin of the Wagoneer, as GM’s Denali trim is for its GMC mannequin.

“We see important various for Wagoneer as a premium extension of the Jeep mannequin,” acknowledged  Trevor Dorchies, a Fiat Chrysler spokesman. “Jeep is unquestionably the muse of Wagoneer, nevertheless Wagoneer will transcend that into additional premium segments.”

The Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer is likely to be produced on the automaker’s Warren Truck plant in suburban Detroit.

The Grand Wagoneer concept represents the long run design and know-how of the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer SUVs. Thought vehicles normally moreover set a model new design route for the mannequin common.

Meunier acknowledged “a great deal of points” on the thought will make it into the manufacturing variations of the vehicles subsequent 12 months. The three-row concept pays tribute to its heritage whereas that features modern designs along with new utilized sciences and reveals on the car’s inside.

“We strived for a stage of premium authorities that we’ve certainly not achieved as a company,” acknowledged Ralph Gilles, head of design for Fiat Chrysler.

On the skin, the SUV has large dwelling home windows that sort a greenhouse throughout the car, which was a distinguishable attribute of the distinctive Grand Wagoneer. It moreover consists of conventional Jeep design parts with modern twists, along with the mannequin’s typical seven-slotted grille with lights in between the slots along with a headlight-to-headlight delicate bar above them.

The seven-passenger concept car is powered by a plug-in hybrid electrical system, a nod to the mannequin’s plans to electrify every Jeep nameplate by 2022. Meunier declined to comment if such a powertrain may be on the market on the vehicles subsequent 12 months.

Not just like the distinctive Grand Wagoneer, wood paneling – a broadly recognized attribute of the earlier SUV – should not be featured on the edges of the thought. Nonetheless, Fiat Chrysler designers did embody teak wood throughout the car’s headlights, roof tie downs and inside, which resembles a digital cockpit better than a traditional Jeep.

On the inside of the car, wood is included on the doorways, dash and center administration panel. The doorway within the car consists of four screens, along with a first-ever 10.25-inch passenger show in an SUV, in line with Fiat Chrysler.

The passenger show choices privateness film as to not distract the driving power, officers acknowledged.  

As a nod to its manufacturing home and the mannequin’s headquarters, the Grand Wagoneer concept’s full-pane glass roof incorporates a map of Detroit and the surrounding house.

For audio, the Grand Wagoneer concept’s McIntosh audio system choices 23 custom-designed audio system linked to a 24-channel amplifier.

Jeep moreover unveiled a model new plug-in hybrid electrical mannequin Thursday of its flagship Wrangler SUV.

The hybrid nonetheless has {an electrical} powertrain together with a traditional inside combustion engine. It is the primary of its selection for Jeep throughout the U.S. The auto will attribute a “4xe” badge, a play on Jeep’s reputation as a 4×4 off-road mannequin.

The 2021 Wrangler 4xe is ready to virtually 400 miles on a single price and tank, along with as a lot as 25 miles of pure-electric driving, in line with officers. When not in electrical mode, the car is powered by 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine.

It is anticipated to start out manufacturing at a plant in Toledo, Ohio, in December, adopted by availability in U.S. showrooms shortly after that along with Europe and China by early 2021.