August 8, 2025 - Jeep Hits The Gas

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for August 8, 2025, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry.

It's been a rough few years for Jeep. Since peaking at more than 1.5 million sales globally in 2018, the brand's sales have declined almost 39% and in 2024, sales dropped below 1 million units for the first time since 2014.  This is all despite expanding the lineup with additional models like the Gladiator and Wagoneer in North America and Commander, Renegade and Avenger overseas. There are numerous reasons behind this including an attempt to shift the brand upmarket to compete with the likes of Land Rover, numerous quality problems and growing competition in its core off-road market from the likes of the Ford Bronco. 

Since Antonio Filosa took the reigns of Jeep last year and more recently was named CEO of parent company Stellantis, there has been a concerted effort to address the problems at Jeep and the other brands under the corporate umbrella. Now that the Trump administration has effectively gutted any enforcement of fuel economy or emissions standards, Stellantis' North American brands have been given the freedom to use whatever tools they have available to try to attract back buyers. Ram has already reintroduced the Hemi V8 to the 1500 truck and the return of the Hellcat-powered TRX is promised for early 2026. Dodge is continuing production of the Hellcat Durango. 

Yesterday, Jeep CEO Bob Broderdorf confirmed the rumors that the 6.4-liter V8 Wrangler will remain in production beyond the 2026 model year. While Broderdorf declined to comment on whether a 5.7-liter V8 might offered as a lower cost option, he didn't deny it either. He also revealed that Jeep would launch 4 new or refreshed models in North America over the next 4 months and 7 models in 7 months globally. In addition to the new Cherokee coming this fall, refreshed versions of the Grand Cherokee and Grand Wagoneer will arrive and the electric, off-road Recon will finally debut in November, more than a year behind schedule. 

Despite the addition of new combustion powertrain options, Jeep remains committed to its multi-energy strategy including electrified powertrains like the new hybrid for the Cherokee and its EVs. As a global brand, Jeep cannot afford to just go all in high-power and high consumption combustion offerings. The goal for the near term is to offer its core North American customers whatever they want to buy in order to get volumes and margins back up to help fund the development of the future. 

Thanks for listening.