Production Dates Revealed for Newest, Biggest Jeeps

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

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]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

More by Steph Willems

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 40 comments
  • Oberkanone Oberkanone on Aug 08, 2020

    Nothing for Belvidere.

    • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Aug 09, 2020

      Belvidere in the last ten years was used to build the new Dart, Compass, Patriot, and regular Cherokee. The Dart and Patriot have been discontinued, and the Compass sold in NA is now made in Toluca, Mexico, where the Fiat 500 was built. Only the regular Cherokee is left in Belvidere's 5 million square foot assembly plant on 280 acres. I suspect the assembly plant will be closed rather than get any new models. The separate stamping plant is modern and automated, but the panels can be shipped to other assembly plants. I suspect the cost of labor in Illinois is part of the problem.

  • Bobby Bobby on Aug 09, 2020

    If the new Wagoneer is going to be a full-sized SUV primed against the Chevy Tahoe and Ford Expedition, they really ought to make a blinged-out, ultra lux version of it and call it "Chrysler Imperial." It could be a bargain basement alternative (relatively speaking) to the Escalade and Navigator; similar flash and sizzle for tens of thousands less. Plus the poor Chrysler brand is currently starved for product- just one minivan (with 2 names) and the aging 300 (a model which apparently won't see another generation).

    • Lie2me Lie2me on Aug 09, 2020

      I always thought Cadillac should have called the Escalade, "Truck DeVille" and the Lincoln Navigator, "Lincoln Town Truck"

  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
Next