If you spend your days decrying the bloat of American automobiles, you won’t like what 2021 has in store for you. It’ll be like 2020… only worse!
Scary stuff. For consumers enamored both with the Jeep brand and large, cargo-happy vehicles, however, next year will bring the dawning of a new age of glorious excess. Thanks to Fiat Chrysler’s second-quarter earnings report, we can now pin down post-lockdown production timelines for three Jeep vehicles boasting three rows of seating.
The production timelines, noted by Motor1, span the year. The first of the new Jeep models out the door is a three-row SUV due to start assembly in the first quarter of 2021. That model will shared a platform and powertrains with the next-generation Grand Cherokee, with production taking place at the converted Mack Avenue plant in Detroit.
Following on the heels of that model, which should appear with its own name (as opposed to Grand Cherokee XL or something similar), is the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. Hulking, truck-based SUVs with varying levels of lux, the two biggest Jeeps will begin assembly in the second quarter of the year. Built at Warren truck, the two Wagoneers share the Ram 1500’s underpinnings.
Hybrid versions of all three vehicles are expected, and with good reason. Tesla has only so many green credits to sell. Don’t fret, though — there’ll be V8 engines to be had, for sure, and the price ceiling on on the Grand Wagoneer will likely satisfy those who can’t stomach paying less than six figures for a vehicle.
Also on the docket is the Grand Cherokee, long overdue for a revamp. Rolling out of the Mack Avenue and Jefferson North plants, the model slated for a Q3 production start will include a plug-in hybrid variant.
Overall, it doesn’t look like the pandemic-borne lockdown impacted the production timeline of the three-row models in any significant way, though the Grand Cherokee was initially expected to roll out in the first half of the year.
[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]