DETROIT MOTOR SHOW: Next Jeep Grand Cherokee to be Alfa Giulia-based
US firm's next BMW X5 rival to be based on Italian car-maker's Giorgio platformFiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) boss, Sergio Marchionne, has announced Jeep's fifth-generation Grand Cherokee will be based on Alfa Romeo's new Giorgio platform.
Currently, the Giorgio platform underpins the recently launched Giulia sedan and the forthcoming Stelvio compact SUV.
The new platform will bring huge benefits over the old Mercedes-Benz M-Class-sourced architecture that the current model is based on.
Already engineered for right-hand drive and all-wheel drive, the Giorgio underpinnings will be significantly lighter than the old Benz platform and allow Jeep to introduce semi-autonomous driving aids to the large US SUV.
Describing Jeep's use of the Giorgio platform as the "most natural application of a further evolution of the Alfa Romeo platform", Marchionne told Autocar magazine that the Giorgio platform will be a "big piece of Jeep story".
According to the FCA boss, only a 60-day feasibility study stands in the way of the Giorgio platform being green-lit for use by Jeep. Once approved, the Grand Cherokee is expected to go on sale in late 2018 or early 2019.
Jeep's use of the Alfa Romeo platform helps justify (and share the cost) the billion dollars spent on engineering it.
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