The new WL Grand Cherokee can be engineered to accept Jeep’s new inline six-cylinder petrol engines, the company’s CEO has verified.
“That’s possible. That is a problem of priority and likely company case,” Jeep CEO Christian Meunier explained to CarExpert when questioned no matter whether the Hurricane six could be launched as an up-stage motor in the Grand Cherokee array, noting there are not several autos wherever this engine would be a rational suit.
At present, the Grand Cherokee is available in Australia only in three-row L guise and solely with Jeep’s venerable Pentastar 3.6-litre naturally-aspirated petrol V6. The two-row edition is owing here in the initial quarter of 2023.
From there, the Grand Cherokee 4xe variant with a turbocharged four-cylinder plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain is set for neighborhood launch prior to the middle of 2023.
Officially recognized as the GME-T6, the new twin-turbocharged 3.-litre inline-six shares its bore, stroke and cylinder spacing with the GME-T4 turbocharged 2.-litre four made available in designs like the Cherokee and Wrangler overseas.
The Hurricane 6 will at first be offered in either a Standard Output tune with at minimum 298kW of electrical power and 610Nm of torque, though the Significant Output has at minimum 373kW and 644Nm.
These outputs range dependent on the product. The motor debuted this 12 months in the Wagoneer L and Grand Wagoneer L, and subsequent applications have still to be confirmed.
Stellantis has, nevertheless, confirmed a plug-in hybrid version is coming.
No matter of tune, it is a large bounce from the Pentastar’s 210kW and 344Nm.
Jeep has not announced designs to introduce the normally-aspirated 5.7-litre petrol V8 motor, which experienced been provided in the previous WK2 sequence and however serves an up-level motor in the North American line-up.
While a 6.4-litre V8 was not too long ago released in the North American Wrangler line-up, Stellantis has been whittling down the variety of V8 solutions it presents.
The Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Challenger will stop output in 2023, although the WL Grand Cherokee doesn’t supply SRT and Trackhawk variants like the WK2, which packed 6.4-litre and supercharged 6.2-litre V8 engines, respectively.
Mr Meunier mentioned the V8 quantity in Australia was not extremely big for the Grand Cherokee, whilst the defunct turbo-diesel accounted for around 30 for each cent of gross sales.
The turbo-diesel engine choice is dead globally in the Grand Cherokee as Stellantis moves away from diesel engines, dropping them from the Maserati line-up and trimming the selection of oil-burner alternatives throughout the Jeep and Ram ranges.
“In this phase I’m told diesel… it is what we require. If we really don’t have diesel, we just can’t provide,” Mr Meunier said.
“I never consider this things. The market place is heading to evolve, proper? Simply because diesel is heading to go absent. Diesel is heading to die.
“It’s going to die in Europe. And since the massive quantity was coming from Europe and the European companies ended up genuinely, seriously advertising diesel.”
Mr Meunier reported he sees plug-in hybrids as a great bridge in markets like Australia till there is infrastructure a lot more supportive of entire electric powered motor vehicles.
Although Jeep has only confirmed the Grand Cherokee 4xe for Australia for now, it delivers plug-in hybrid variations of the Renegade, Compass and Wrangler in other marketplaces.
It also options to introduce plug-in hybrid variations of the Gladiator, Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer.
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