Electric Jeep Cherokee replacement expected by 2025

Jeep is understood to be working on an electric replacement for the current Cherokee midsize SUV — one of at least four electric vehicles promised by 2025.

The anticipated Cherokee EV will follow in the footsteps of the rugged Jeep Recon and sleeker Wagoneer S EVs unveiled this month and scheduled for US production beginning in 2024.

“We have announced two of the four BEVs [due in North America by 2025]Stay tuned for the other two,” Jeep CEO Christian Meunier said in Detroit this week. It’s worth noting that Jeep also unveiled its new European-led Avenger EV.

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CarExpert believes that one of the yet-to-be-seen new EVs will be a replacement for the Cherokee. It’s unclear if Jeep will keep the famous badge or go in a different direction, and if there will also be an internal combustion engine version.

Jeep’s path suggests its diverse D-segment — or mid-size — SUV lineup is expected to expand, with the company considering the Cherokee, Wrangler, Recon, and Wagoneer S as members, despite wildly different designs.

The Recon and Wagoneer S, both confirmed for Australia, will be supported by the new STLA Large platform. That suggests the Cherokee replacement could do the same.

Jeep recognizes that the current KL Cherokee, which first went into production in 2013 and was last updated in 2018, needs to be replaced.

“It’s keeping me up at night and obviously this product is getting … smaller and smaller and we say the current product is becoming less and less competitive in the very competitive segment,” Jeep CEO Christian Meunier said, noting mid-year. SUV segment is the largest in the world.

With the launch of three new electric vehicles, all of similar size, Jeep offerings will therefore be heavily focused on the D-segment.

In every other segment that Jeep competes in, the brand has 1-2 vehicles.

The new electric Avenger will open the range in markets like Europe, Japan and possibly Australia, with Jeep viewing it as an A/B segment offering, offered under the B-segment Renegade and C-segment Compass.

Sitting above the Recon, Wrangler, Wagoneer S and Cherokee replacement is the big Grand Cherokee and even bigger Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. All of these models are available in extended L versions.

Jeep sold just 382 Cherokees in Australia last year. The only mid-size SUVs it outperformed were the Citroen C5 Aircross (58 sales), the Peugeot 5008 (189) and the SsangYong Korando (353).

That’s a far cry from the numbers it released earlier in its life cycle.

In 2015, Jeep sold 6156 Cherokees, outselling the Ford Kuga, Holden Captiva 5, and Suzuki Grand Vitara, though not exactly a threat to loyalists like the Toyota RAV4. Volume then dropped massively to 2079 sales in 2016, with sales gradually declining thereafter.

For 2022 it lost its base four-cylinder, front-wheel drive, naturally aspirated model, and as its turbocharged four-cylinder isn’t sold here it’s now V6 and AWD only in Australia. This makes it the only vehicle in the mainstream mid-size SUV segment to offer a six-cylinder engine.

MORE: Everything Jeep Cherokee