Jeep hasn’t exactly been at the vanguard of electrification, but the brand feels like it just found a Post-It note under a big stack of unopened bills that reads “Remember to electrify stuff: BIG DEAL don’t forget” and is now doing just that. Our own David Tracy attended Jeep’s 4xe Day virtually, while on the other half of the Earth, and we’ve now seen where Jeep is headed, EV-wise, with its off-road-capable Recon. But Jeep is just getting started with its stated plan to be “the global zero-emission SUV leader,” and part of that includes small SUVs for the European market, like the one I’m going to tell you about now, the Avenger.
Stellantis has come right out and said that the Avenger is too small for the American market, and then explained this further with a silly word (emphasis mine):
“…developing a portfolio of capable, fully electric vehicles designed and rightsized for Europe.”
Rightsized. Hmm.
Goofy marketing words or not, Stellantis isn’t wrong, because the Avenger is a size of vehicle that makes a ton of sense for Europe, where vehicles of this size class are sold by the metric bushel. The size also makes sense for Japan and South Korea, where the Avenger will be sold as well.
Jeep said it’s targeting a range of 400 kilometers/about 250 miles, and its stated that “…this new SUV will offer impressive ground clearance, breakover and approach angles for its segment…” This at least suggests Jeep giving a bit of thought to the car’s off-road capabilities, though I suspect that the actual use case of these will be general-use city and some highway driving by people who just want to feel like they could take it off road if they had to, like if a yeti escaped from the zoo and was terrorizing the suburbs of Amsterdam, or something.
Want to hear some marketing talk about the Avenger? Too bad!
“The all-new Avenger will offer Jeep brand capability that is rightsized for the European market. This modern, fun and emotional SUV will appeal to a growing set of customers who are looking for a capable, compact, modern and all-electric Jeep brand alternative to the current players.”
The Avenger will be positioned below the Renegade, and be built at “high-efficiency plant in Tychy, Poland.” In a lot of ways, it makes sense to think of it as a sort of electrified Renegade, which is similar in size and design to the Avenger, which is a usable, small (hopefully affordable) EV with enough of that rugged-looking Jeep brand identity and styling and maybe just enough off-road capability to make it stand out from other small EV crossovers and SUVs.
It’s a fairly attractive chunky little SUV, with that shark fin-like C-pillar and black, floating roof (notably, the lack of a cargo area window means it is Not A Wagon), and there are some nice graphical touches that develop from the Renegade design language in the taillights and front end.
Also, great color for these first photos.
Jeep will officially show the Avenger at the Paris Motor Show on October 17, where hopefully they’ll announce pricing, and the car should show up in Jeep showrooms in early 2023.
Sooooo…an electric Compass then? Jeep sells a few here in Oz but dropped the Renegade due to significant indifference.
Four-door (or five, depending upon how you count the hatch) vehicles aren’t my jam, but with two-doors becoming increasingly rare, I like that designers are trying to hide the handles on the rear doors. It’s not going to fool anyone, but it makes the design look a bit cleaner from my perspective.
I do not want an emotional SUV! Show it a rough road and it’s liable to just burst into tears. No thank you. I’ll stick with stoic vehicles, thank you.
I dislike the name, but the overall look is fine for a CUV. I love how now we are at the point where most CUV’s look similar, which is how SUV’s kind of started at as well.
We had an Avenger when I was a kid. Bluey, we named it, on account of its colour. I think you called it the Plymouth Cricket over here.
They should sell it here. It’s electric and comes in a cool color like yellow.
Not bad for a faux Jeep. I feel like giving a vehicle like this decent approach and breakover angles is the cheapest way to be able to say it should “theoretically” be able to tackle some offroading without really committing to real capability. Also – assuming 250 miles on the European test cycle, which is another reason not to bother bringing it here…
How is the panel fitment of the rear hatch so bad for corporate press pictures?
Probably pre-production/pilot build cars. But yeah this is pretty terrible – they could have Photoshopped the images easily enough so this is just careless.
Maybe it is intentional. If so, I actually appreciate this. Kinda like how I used to purposely pick pictures that were not overly flattering and most importantly current (not 10 years/20 lb ago) for my dating profile, so the let-down was minimal when I would meet my date in person. People are get WAY too clever with flattering angles and touch-ups on those sites.
This is rather what I would imagine a new Cherokee would look like. I don’t hate it-actually kinda like it: the shark fin and daisy wheels brighten up what would otherwise to me be just another bland & ubiquitous CUV
Always thought Avenger was a cool name for a car. Hope this one is better than the last one.
Isn’t it roughly the size of the Renegade? Those seem to sell pretty well here, Americans are perfectly fine with buying small crossovers that aren’t the EcoSport, wonder if production capacity and internal competition with larger, more profitable models are more pressing concerns than whether anyone here would buy it
it would come down to price and the range number would hurt it’s chances if the renegade is cheaper and also faster to fill, and does not yet cause range anxiety.
A lot of people dump on the Renegade, but I see a lot of them on the roads, so they must be selling pretty well. Seems odd that Jeep wouldn’t target that US segment with an EV yet, but maybe product life is involved. They’ll wait until they just can’t sell the Renegade anymore, then 4xe hybrid it with another facelift. Maybe, eventually, they’ll replace it with a full EV… later… when they get around to it.