Jeep Avenger 2024 Review

The 2024 Jeep Avenger is offered in three trim levels – Longitude, Limited, and Summit – with prices starting from $49,990 (plus ORCs) and stretching to $60,990 for the flagship Summit on test here.

Every grade is fitted with the same front-mounted 115kW/260Nm electric motor and 54kWh lithium-ion battery, good for 390km of (claimed) pure EV driving range.

A clever Selec-Terrain mode debuts for the first time – something we’re keen to try during some light off-roading in a future test – which adds sand, mud, and snow drive modes, on top of the standard modes: eco, normal, and sport.

Miniature proportions see it measure up at 4084mm long and 1797mm wide, making it around 300mm shorter but just a little wider than a Toyota Corolla hatchback, or about the same size as the very first Willys Jeep born some 80-plus years ago – the battle-ready Willys MB, for reference.

But where the high-riding Avenger differs from most city-sized SUVs is in its generous 200mm of ground clearance, along with 20-degree approach and 32-degree departure angles.

As expected, the $60K-plus Summit gets all the fruit: 18-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights and tail lights, keyless entry, a two-tone paint scheme (black roof), sunroof, heated front seats with massage function (driver only), and leather-appointed trim.

A pair of 10.25-inch digital displays are standard, along with a 'drone-view' camera system that works in a similar fashion to a 360-degree set-up (but with fewer cameras), while parking sensors are scattered the whole way around the top-spec Avenger.

Safety gear fitted to the Avenger Summit is generous, starting with autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane keep assist and lane centering for semi-autonomous steering on the highway, plus blind spot monitoring, traffic jam assist, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control, reverse camera and six airbags.

There’s no vehicle-to-load (V2L) function offered, however, both the mid-spec Limited and flagship Summit come with an 11kW on-board charger, while the Longitude gets a slower 7kW system.

The Avenger is covered by a five-year/100,000km warranty, while an eight-year/160,000km warranty applies to the battery.

Lifetime roadside assistance is offered as long as you service through Jeep, while trips to the workshop are due annually, or every 12,500km, with prices capped at $250 per service.And while the service pricing is impressively low, almost matching Toyota levels, the intervals are not, with many EV rivals requiring 20,000km or two year service visits.

Looks are subjective but if you ask me, the 2024 Jeep Avenger is adorable, thanks mostly to its pint-sized proportions that integrate rugged Jeep styling cues really nicely.

It also looks tough, with sloping LED daytime running lights (DRLs) that look like angry eyes set either side of the seven-slot ‘grille’, as well as a host of black plastic exterior trim panels that nod to its off-road roots.

Jeep says all that plastic cladding – which spans the entire lower edge of the Avenger – is there to protect the vehicle body and (hopefully) avoid damaging panels and paintwork if you find yourself involved in a minor bingle or misjudge a parking/drive-thru maneuver and kiss a wall or another vehicle, for instance.

And it is cities and urban areas where most Avengers will likely spend a majority of their dirivng lives, so it’s a good thing it’s enjoyable to get around in. Even if it lacks a bit of feedback, the steering is super light and the turning circle is great, making it easy to get around town in. It's a great urban explorer.

Even during enthusiastic driving, including higher speed country roads, the Avenger is a sure-footed companion, with good road-holding and decent grip from its Goodyear rubber, even in wet weather.

It’s rather quiet inside the cabin too, until you take it onto coarse-chip roads where you’ll notice a little bit of tyre and road noise filter into the cabin.

The junior Jeep accelerates from standstill without a hint of wheelspin and always feels stable and predictable, partly due to its 1.5-tonne mass. The raised ride height also means you won't need to fear kerbs in the 'burbs – no matter how tall – which is reassuring.

But while it appears to be relatively efficient and easy to achieve Jeep’s claimed energy use of 15.8kWh/100km (ours dropped as low as 14.8kWh/100km on test) the mix of highway, country and urban driving we did on the local launch suggested we’d only be able to achieve around 320km on a full tank, rather than the claimed 390km.

Elsewhere, a drumbeat for an indicator sound adds a touch of fun and less obvious quirky touches are the array of 'Easter Eggs' planted throughout the vehicle, including a ladybug on the roof rail and a Jeep ‘face’ embedded into the grille.

The 2024 Jeep Avenger was built to feel more like a ‘regular’ petrol or diesel car, rather than an EV.

That’s likely why there’s no one-pedal driving option here. Instead, when you’re on the move, you can press the ‘drive’ (D/B) selector button on the dash to switch to ‘battery’ mode, which gives you mild energy regeneration when you hop off the go-pedal.

Unlike other EVs, the Avenger doesn’t offer the same amount of zesty poke off the line. It accelerates smoothly but with less urgency than many of its battery-electric counterparts but that also comes down to its modest outputs.

You only get the full 115kW/260Nm outputs in sport mode – good for a 0-100km/h sprint in a claimed nine seconds – while normal (80kW/220Nm) and eco (60kW/180Nm) modes limit the power/torque on offer for the sake of efficiency. Eco mode also limits the air-con.

On the move, the brake pedal feels spongey, with a fair bit of pedal travel before the brakes grab and you start slowing down.

The brake pedal itself sits higher than the accelerator so switching between the two quickly isn’t as efficient as it could be.

For a $60k-plus vehicle, the Avenger lacks some of the niceties you might expect at this price point as well. The scratchy roof lining is one, while those in the second row go without air vents, door pockets, or centre armrest; so no storage – or cup holders – unless you use seatback pockets.

The stop/start button often needs multiple presses before it responds and those stepping into the car – particularly those with big feet – will battle against chunky lower door sills, which require you to lift your legs and feet higher than normal when getting in to avoid knocking the kick panel.

Meanwhile, there’s no storage space under the bonnet although the boot offers a decent 355 litres of cargo lugging space. But like most EVs, there’s no spare tyre, just a repair kit.

Elsewhere, the heated seats in our tester seemed to have an issue where they didn’t start warming up until around 15 minutes after switching them on, with both the driver and passenger noticing hot bottoms, almost simultaneously.

The 2024 Jeep Avenger is very cute, about as practical as a compact SUV gets, and manages to retain at least some of the rugged all-American brand’s charm, even if it’s not equipped to follow some of its stablemates off the beaten track.

In many ways, Jeep has succeeded in producing an EV that doesn’t feel like an EV to drive and for many, that’ll be a positive.

If your budget is circa-$60,000 and adventuring far and wide off the beaten track is high on your list of priorities, the Jeep Avenger might not be for you.

But if your riskiest enterprise is discovering the best local brunch spot on a Sunday morning, it’d make a neat companion.

2024 Jeep Avenger Summit at a glance:
Price: $60,990 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: Single permanent magnet synchronous motor
Output: 115kW/260Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 54kWh lithium-ion (NMC)
Range: 390km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 15.8kWh/100km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Not tested

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