MAGNETO PERSONALITY

Jeep’s original Magneto concept was a Wrangler EV designed to perform like a petrol one.

What is that sound? It seems like only yesterday if you wanted a Wrangler then you almost certainly wanted it with a 3.6L V6. It didn’t rumble quite like a V8 but it was still a growl to thrill the ears. But then Jeep launched the Magneto concept in 2021. And the sound was – silence.

An all-electric Wrangler certainly silenced some of the diehards, who were reduced to shuffling their feet and scratching their heads under their baseball caps. And last year Jeep did it again, launching the Magneto 2.0 at Moab Jeep Safari in Utah earlier in 2022. Only this time the silence was a little deeper, caused in part by mouths opening and staying open.

The clue is in the name. The 2.0 bit. Obvious really, as this is the revised, second version of the all-electric Wrangler. But there’s another angle to this. Guess how quickly this rig can accelerate from standstill to 60mph?

Yes indeedy. Two seconds. T-w-o.

That’s actually quicker than a Bugatti Chiron, a supercar with a price tag starting well north of £250,000. And that performance is in a 4x4 that can go crawling sedately and quietly up some of the toughest terrain that Utah has to offer, and that’s plenty tough. This second Magneto iteration doesn’t look that different to the first concept, so how, exactly how, have they achieved such a thing?

It’s like Jeep started cautiously but has now just gone full chocks away, max throttle towards a fun horizon. The first concept was pretty good in that it managed to mimic the performance of a normal V6 Wrangler. The 70kWh powerplant equalled 285bhp and 273lb ft of torque, so it could canter to 60mph from standstill in a very creditable 6.8sec. You get the sense that this is what they wanted, to replicate the existing Jeep as much as possible, so that people weren’t too spooked by the electric powerplant. A year later Jeep clearly don’t care about spooking people and their careful walk now has a distinct swagger.

Magneto 2.0 is designed to out-drag a Bugatti… then tame the rocks like, well, a Wrangler

Words: Graham Scott Pictures: Jeep

Jeep’s original Magneto concept had similar outputs to the current V6-engined Wrangler, the assumed idea being to show people that electric ain’t so different to the real thing. Obviously, a certain kind of person will say that if electric ain’t so different to the real thing, why wouldn’t you buy the real thing? Perhaps Jeep could see that one coming, which is why the Magneto 2.0 has a custom axial flux motor putting out an, er, almost entirely silent 625bhp and 850lbf.ft. Oh, and it has nitrous… well, the electrical equivalent thereof, which is a 10-second peak amperage hold you can engage to achieve a barely believable 0-60 time of 2.0 seconds. Not a misprint. If you had built something like this, you would give it a transparent bonnet too

Version Two is a foot longer than the original. That’s because the powerplant has had some definite work and now takes more room. There are the same 800-volt battery packs as before, but now it’s a ‘custom axial flux electric motor’. You sense that Scotty would quite like to take a closer look – actually he can as the carbon bonnet has a clear section so you can look and drool or scratch your head under your baseball cap as you see fit.

The combined effect of all the changes is a simply monstrous increase in power. Where there was 285bhp there is now 625bhp. Where there was 273lb ft of torque there is now 850lbf.ft.

Yes, they’re quite big numbers aren’t they? And even then Jeep couldn’t help tweaking some more. It’s all-electric but you can have the effect of a nitrous oxide boost if you want. The sparky equivalent is a hold on peak amperage, which it can hold for ten seconds, more than enough to blitz that supercar looking cocky at the lights.

Again, Jeep hasn’t stopped there. You might expect this vehicle, which sounds like one of those little electric cars you used to buy children, to simply have just ‘go’ and ‘stop’ pedals. But actually and surprisingly and rather marvellously there’s a six-speed manual box. They really are trying to make this seem as ‘normal’ as possible.

A motor capable of throwing a Jeep at the horizon with this much vigour is also going to be capable of ripping the guts out of its transmission. But no: Magneto 2.0 has a six speed manual box (again, not a misprint) which feeds through a Rubicon Rock-Trac transfer case to Dynatrac 60 front and 80 rear Pro-Rock axles. Between this and the shock loads a set of 40x13.50R20 Maxxis muds are capable of generating, it’s a huge ask on the drivetrain – but since when was that ever something to worry about when you’ve got Jeep Performance Parts on your side and a budget the size of, well, this vehicle’s tyres?

Now, you may be thinking that’s all rather fine, but surely it’s going to massacre the transmission with that much clout on hand. But there’s that manual gearbox, and that feeds through a Rubicon Rock-Trac transfer case, so you have just as much control when you’re doing serious rock-climbing as you would in an old Wrangler. And that power then goes through an extremely robust pair of axles, a Dynatrac 60 Pro-Rock on the front and a Pro-Rock 80 at the rear. They’ve both got lockers too.

Further downstream from there, we find a pair of 20” wheels shot with monstrous 40” tyres. It’s all suspended on a 3” lift kit, which is standard. The effect of all this is to make the 2.0 a big rig with a presence as you walk up to it. The cabin is at chest height it seems and all that carbon bodywork flows and gleams in an impressive manner.

Once you’re actually rolling, it really is quite remarkable that all you can hear is a steady whining, and this time it’s not from the kids in the back. Within the context of Moab, this makes a very neat fit. You’re out in God’s Air and you’re not polluting it. I have vivid memories of old Jeeps spewing their entire steaming gearbox oil all over the rocks here, while others sat there belching smoke while leaking gently. Now it’s all clean and sanitised. Sure, somewhere a coal-fired power station is working extra hard to make the electricity to recharge it, but that seems a long way from where you are.

The whole experience can seem a touch remote at times. Perhaps it’s the lift kit or those socking great tyres, but you can roll along without feeling totally connected to the land beneath your wheels. However, sort the transfer case out, lock the diffs if you feel the need and then tackle something scary and you realise an all-electric

Wrangler can still walk the walk as well as talk the talk. All this and yet it can burn off supercars at the lights as well.

It’s hard to say exactly what a productionised version of this concept vehicle will be like or what it will cost in the UK. Doubtless some of that carbon will disappear, and we don’t know yet how long the battery packs will last, particularly if you are rock-crawling in low ratio with maximum effort and then heading back to town to hunt down Lambos.

However, there’s no question that this not an outlier for Jeep. They’re committed to producing a range of electric vehicles, and this is far from the first or the last. But what we can see from the Wrangler Magneto 2.0 is that Jeep has clearly decided there’s going to be no apology about this, no trying to slide it in under the radar. This is a statement of intent, and apart from anything else it’s clear that the intention is to have fun.

An all-electric Jeep that’s fun. Now that’s not a bad thought.