Jeep Grand Wagoneer EV will be 'magic'

Jeep has confirmed that its hulking Range Rover rival, the Jeep Grand Wagoneer, will get the EV treatment within three years – and it’s in line to become the American SUV brand’s quickest and most expensive model ever.

In a video conference this week, Jeep’s global boss Christian Meunier said the 2021 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, which is expected to start at around $US100,000 ($A134,000) but at this stage is not coming to Australia, will draw a line in a sand for the brand and upset the status quo in the luxury SUV segment when the EV version arrives.

“This is magic. This is something that nobody has ever seen before,” said Meunier.

“Think about what you’ve seen [with] the Grand Wagoneer. You evolve it in a few years and you put [in] big battery packs – that thing drives in complete silence, at a very, very strong acceleration.”

The Jeep boss has previously said that electrification would help preserve the high-performance Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk pedigree when traditional combustion engines (read: supercharged V8s) are phased out.

The off-road brand is aggressively pursuing an EV strategy after parent company Stellantis announced a group-wide electric vehicle push last week – including a RAM 1500 EV pick-up and an all-new electric Toyota HiLux ute rival.

Jeep has promised to launch an EV in every SUV segment it plays in by 2025, with the Jeep Wrangler EV expected to break new ground for the brand – potentially with underwater driving capability.

Meunier admitted that the tech-laden Jeep Grand Wagoneer, which will also rival the Mercedes-Benz GLS and BMW X7, won’t come cheap.

“The Grand Wagoneer is obviously not a very affordable product, it’s a very premium product, state of the art,” he said.

“And the BEV, the electrified version, is probably not going to be an affordable product.”

While he wouldn’t speculate on potential pricing, Meunier said the zero-emissions Jeep juggernaut would find favour with well-heeled buyers.

“I think there will be a lot of customers for that kind of product,” he said.

Aimed squarely at left-hand-drive markets, chiefly North America, there are no plans for the Jeep Grand Wagoneer to be sold in Australia. But this could change in future.

Earlier in the year, Meunier stated that “nothing is off the table” for the Australian market.

However, he said the focus would initially be on the incoming new-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee, which will be offered in five- and seven-seat configuration.

“I’d love to do it and I’m sure it could do very well in Australia,” Meunier said of the Grand Wagoneer.

“[But] because of the size of the product and the potential, which is hard to justify because other right-hand drive markets are not really interested, there’s no market for that product in Tokyo or London, it makes it extremely hard to justify.”