Jeep unveils all-electric Wrangler idea SUV

EMBARGOED FOR 12:01 AM MONDAY, March 22.

Jeep has unveiled a brand new all-electric model of its iconic Wrangler SUV, however shoppers will possible have to attend no less than a couple of years to buy one.

The model on Monday debuted the Wrangler “Magneto” as an idea car, which means it is a customized product usually constructed by automakers to gauge buyer curiosity or present the longer term path of a car or model.

“It is a sustainable, stealthy, rock-climbing power,” Jim Morrison, vp of the Jeep model in North America, mentioned throughout a media occasion. “It is a zero-emissions idea car with Jeep 4×4 functionality taken to the following degree.”

Jeep executives have mentioned each Jeep will supply some type of electrification going ahead, however it has not confirmed an all-electric model of the Wrangler. The corporate just lately began promoting a plug-in hybrid electrical model of the Wrangler below a brand new “4xe” moniker, a play on the model’s off-road popularity mixed with electrification. Plug-in hybrid electrical fashions have batteries like EVs but additionally nonetheless have a standard inner combustion engine.

The Jeep Wrangler Magneto idea is predicated off a two-door 2020 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. To make it an EV, engineers swapped out its inner combustion engine and a few supporting components for electrical elements reminiscent of 4 batteries and an e-motor.

The car is able to as much as 273 foot-pounds of torque and 285 horsepower. The Magneto runs 0-60 mph in 6.eight seconds. The corporate didn’t launch the electrical vary of the car.

Essentially the most distinctive factor concerning the Magneto is it has a six-speed guide transmission, which electrical autos do not require due to their motors. Mark Allen, head of Jeep design, mentioned the car “has the perfect traits” of an computerized transmission however the “direct-drive really feel” of a guide transmission, which is a key draw for off-road lovers.

The Magneto was unveiled alongside a number of different customized or idea autos for the Jeep Easter Safari, an annual off-road occasion for the model in Moab, Utah. Jeep often makes use of the off-road occasion as a testing floor for the capabilities of its autos in addition to a solution to gauge buyer curiosity in new merchandise.

“The Moab Easter Jeep Safari has been an ideal custom for greater than half a century,” Morrison mentioned. “It is a spot the place we get to attach with our most die-hard off-road lovers and those who’re most loyal to our model.”