NEWS
Seven concept Jeeps, including four graduate from Moab’s Class of ‘23
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his year’s annual Easter Jeep Safari at Moab saw the now-traditional clutch of concepts being unveiled to a doting audience of the marque’s most loyal fans. That’s about 20,000 of them (Jeep has a lot of fans), who headed for eastern Utah to enjoy a weekend of four-wheeling amid a truly extraordinary landscape. And doting at Jeep’s latest concept. This Easter saw a grand total of seven concepts. Four of them rolled in very quietly as they were all-electric, which has to be some sort of record. To be fair, not all seven of the names this year are totally new to us. For example, the Magneto is now up from Concept 1.0 to this year’s Concept 3.0. As the more mathe-
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matically astute will have worked out, this means the first one was shown in 2021 and so this one is the third iteration. Based on the Wrangler Rubicon, we’ve looked at it before and been impressed. Jeep seems to be viewing it as a rolling test bed but there has to be a market already for this all-electric rock-crawler – and given the utterly ridiculous performance figures of last year’s version (which had 625bhp, 850lbf.ft and a 0-60 time of 2.0 seconds), you’d think that even the most electrophobic of off-road diehards would struggle not to break into a smile. Hopefully they won’t keep on rolling it out to Concept 6.0 or something but will get it on a production line. Second up is the Scrambler 392. It is very green, which is faintly ironic
as under the bonnet sits a 6.4-litre V8 pumping out 470bhp and 470lbf. ft of torque. Guess that while Jeep wants to be all on-trend and XR about it all, the company realises it needs to be able to throw some red meat to its customer base as well as knitted tofu burgers. So it’s mostly engine, since it doesn’t have doors or the kind of weather protection you’d want in a rush-hour jam on the North Circular on a February evening. But who cares in Utah? The new air suspension though, that will work anywhere. The Cherokee 4xe is Jeep reimagining one of its own vehicles, namely the 1978 Cherokee SJ, Jeep’s early attempt – in 1974 in fact – to fuse on and off-road chops into a vehicle that younger people would go for. Actually, the new delivery of that
idea looks pretty cool, we think. It’s unmistakably retro but inevitably has two electric motors whirring away along with a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine. Hot rod meets surfer chic, we like. What’s next? Oh yes, the Wrangler Rubicon 4xe. Like you’d not notice it. This one obviously wasn’t designed for the redneck red-meat eaters. There’d be a terrible colour clash at the very least. It’s pink isn’t it. And magenta. And gloss patent black. And, since they’re going all-in, the black patent leather dash has zipper trim with pink velvet underneath it. Unsurprisingly, this concept comes with full electric power. The Grand Wagoneer Overland is a concept that plays a bit safer. It’s aimed more at the cross-trekking community (do they dress funny?)
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