- Jeep’s CEO confirms the Cherokee will make its return in 2025—and as a hybrid
- The last-generation Cherokee ended production in 2023, and its plant was shuttered
- The announcement comes as Ram pushes its EV and extended-range truck launches into next year
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The Jeep Cherokee was dead, but now it looks like it’s coming back to life. At the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, Jeep chief Antonio Filosa said it will return in 2025 and will have a hybrid powertrain. That’s pretty much all we know right now, and of course we’ll be keeping our ear to the ground for any other news on it, but in the meantime, we’ll offer some thoughts on it.
The Cherokee name dated back to the 1974 model, a two-door version of the four-door, body-on-frame Wagoneer that debuted in 1962. It was rebadged as the “Liberty” in Canada and the U.S. for a couple of generations, and then in 2014, morphed into an all-new model and got its old name back. It covered several trims, including a surprisingly competent Trailhawk off-road model, but by 2023 it had been whittled down to just two trim choices, and it didn’t come back for 2024.
The Cherokee was built at Stellantis’ plant in Belvidere, Illinois, which had started up in 1965 building the Plymouth Fury, and which was shuttered once the last Cherokee rolled off the line. Last year, Stellantis said it intended to invest US$4.8 billion into the plant, with reports that its makeover could include an EV battery plant and an unnamed pickup truck, with two shifts building it and with capacity for 100,000 vehicles. The automaker has also announced it’s setting aside US$406 million to upgrade three facilities in Michigan for battery-powered vehicles.
Ram had promised us an all-electric pickup truck, and a range-extended electric pickup truck, and said they’d be here by now — but then, in mid-November, said no, they’ve now been pushed into a 2025 release date.
The official story was that the automaker wants extra time to make sure these new trucks are bulletproof — although we also wonder if someone in charge is glancing over at Ford, which has temporarily halted production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning because it’s not exactly flying off the shelves.
Back in 2022, Jeep announced that by 2025, every model in its line would be electrified. That can mean hybrids, and so far, the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee are offered as 4xe models, meaning they’re plug-in hybrids (PHEV). The all-electric Wagoneer S is the brand’s first full EV, and is expected to arrive soon — although that 2022 promise said there would be four Jeep EVs by 2025, and we haven’t yet spotted the Recon, an all-electric model that is supposed to be here next year.
So given that Jeep’s existing hybrids are the plug-in variety, it would make sense that the automaker would stick that same powertrain into a new Cherokee hybrid. It’s also possible it might not be called a “Cherokee,” but slipped into the Recon lineup alongside – or perhaps in place of – a battery-only version. Right now all we can do is speculate, and then wait and see.