Jeep details range, performance and market potentials for new electric model.

MUCH more detail has been shared about an electric entry vehicle from Jeep that potentially has some chance of entry into the New Zealand market.

There’s good reason the new Avenger, the smallest model the American off-road icon has ever put its name to, has centre stage in a big display at the Paris motor show, which opened overnight. 

The four-metre-long model is the pathfinder for an electric vehicle onslaught; it releases in Europe next year and is going to be followed by a further three EVs by 2025.

Though prioritised for Europe, a model which bases on a platform developed by another brand in the Stellantis automotive conglomerate, Fiat – which will build it in Poland - is also destined to be produced in right hand drive.

Ostensibly that’s for the United Kingdom, but conceivably it also puts every right-hook country where Jeep represents on the map. At Paris today Jeep identified Japan as another market.

Avenger is being followed by two other products, the Wagoneer S premium large SUV and the extreme off-road-centric Recon, that come out of the United States. Jeep chief executive Christian Meunier recently signalled both as being high potentials for this part of the world.

Jeep’s national distributor, Ateco, has said nothing about any of this. 

While Avenger is aimed at brand newbies, young people especially young women, it’s not just for parading around town. Antonella Bruno, who heads Jeep’s European arm, has told Autocar magazine that it will be “equal or better than” the larger Jeep Renegade 4xe, a plug-in hybrid version of the Wrangler, when used off road.

Set to launch in Europe in the first half of next year, Avenger places on a new version of Stellantis’s ECMP platform –an architecture used by, among others, the Opel Mokka soon to come on sale in New Zealand (Opel being part of Stellantis by virtue of being part a Peugeot acquisition from General Motors).

 This will give it “impressive” ground clearance, Jeep said, with segment-topping breakover and approach angles. A large boot and modern interior will also look to attract a new customer base, Bruno told Autocar’s website. 

It will be fitted with a Stellantis-built 54kWh battery that can give 400 kilometres’ range, according to the WLTP cycle, but Jeep claims this can be as much as 550km at urban pace. The battery can recharge from 20-80 percent in 24 minutes via a 100kW cable.

Power will come from, 115kW/ 260Nm motors, with either two or four fitted depending on the variant’s configuration. Both two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive versions will be offered.