The timeless Jeep Wrangler is an American icon, and the car that won World War 2 for the allies; today we learned that a hybrid version of the legendary 4×4 is going to hit dealerships in Q3 this year as per a report via Motortrend.
Currently owned by Fiat-Chrysler, the Jeep brand appears to bet on its EV capabilities and the new Wrangler 4xe is advertised to achieve up to 31 miles autonomy in “all electric” mode. This doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a start.
The plug-in Jeep Wrangler is aimed at diversifying Fiat Chrysler’s EV offerings in North America, and truth be told, they have been lagging behind the competition for years now. The soon-to-be-announced Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid will be unveiled by the end of the year in the US, and globally (Europe, China) early in 2021.
The Jeep Wrangler 4xe is so quiet, it’s like someone turned the volume up on nature. Coming soon. pic.twitter.com/RhKqaL0s2U
— Jeep (@Jeep) August 22, 2020
We don’t know much about the new model so far, but we can speculate from the “specs” that the hybrid will use a small electric engine with an EV-only driving mode, while the main power plant will be a classic gasoline motor, most probably a 2.0 liter turbo-charged engine which is currently used in the existing Jeep Wrangler line-up.
Currently, Fiat Chrysler offers a small number of EVs and hybrids, two of them to be more precise: the Fiat 500e, discontinued in 2019 by the way, and the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid.
The electrified Jeep Wrangler 4xe lets sleeping dogs lie… and horses too. Coming soon. pic.twitter.com/OCy6W82dGL
— Jeep (@Jeep) July 13, 2020
The new plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler will be built in North America, at Jeep’s Toledo Assembly Plant, in Toledo, Ohio. The first EV Jeep Wrangler in history is just a small step for the company, as FCA promised to expand quickly its electrified-power-train line-up by 2022, aiming at 30 new models in the next 3 years.
Photo Credit: MotorTrend