We know Jeep’s docket for the 18 months or so includes debuting the battery-electric Wagoneer S and Recon, putting the plug-in hybrid 4xe powertrain in the Gladiator, and just maybe switching up the engine mix in the Grand Cherokee. We’ve also known there’s a fifth-generation Jeep Cherokee on the way, the return of a nameplate so historically important to the brand that new CEO Antonio Filosa subtly questioned its retirement under his predecessor. Back when Jeep would discuss the new model, in 2022, we anticipated it in 2024 or 2025. Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore (translated), via Mopar Insiders, believes, “The Cherokee’s successor will be announced by the end of the year.”
But the article only states that when the reporter asked Filosa about the Cherokee’s arrival next year, “Filosa gave the arrival of the heir to the Cherokee as probable (because the certainty could be communicated by the end of this year).” So take it with the grain of proverbial Italian sale.
The paper’s story is keen on the Cherokee believing there’s a chance Stellantis will build the SUV at the Melfi, Italy, plant for the European market. Stellantis has been meeting with Italian unions and government officials lately about production there, trying to prevent more revolts over production capacity and naming rights. The automaker’s confirmed five vehicles allotted to the plant, one of the next-gen Compass, the others reported to be two DS models (Citroen’s luxury brand), the Lancia Gamma crossover, and an Opel. The Cherokee name has never come up. Those five Melfi vehicles are all based on the STLA Medium architecture, whereas the next Cherokee keeps getting predicted for the STLA large platform. Italy’s Cassino plant builds models on STLA Large like the current Maserati Grecale and future Alfa Romeo Stelvio.
The Cherokee for our market is expected to be built at Stellantis’ Toluca, Mexico, plant, the facility building just the Compass at the moment. The automaker confirmed this week the Wagoneer S on the STLA Large platform is headed to Toluca, so too the Recon on the STLA Frame architecture.
On more solid ground, the coming Cherokee will grow some and offer upscale options like a Wagoneer trim. Comparing STLA Large specs to the CUSW platform, STLA Large comes with a wheelbase seven to eight inches longer than the old Cherokee, a vehicle length from four to 11 inches longer, and a width about 1.5 inch wider. The upper end of those dimensions could make a new Cherokee about the size of the old Dodge Journey.
Motor Trend suspects a starting price of around $40,000, a guess that would put the all-new model less than $1,000 away from the price of the 2023 Cherokee, which is still on the Jeep site and showing 900 in inventory despite ending production that year.
