What You Need To Know About The 2020 Jeep Lineup

You’ve probably heard the lighthearted speculation that nothing would survive Armageddon but cockroaches and Twinkies. But it’s an incomplete list of the survivors… Jeeps will still be here, too.

Jeep’s last full year of sales, 2018, was the greatest in the company’s history—posting a 17% increase over the previous year. Over 973,000 new Jeeps hit the American roadways in 2018, with the final projections for 2019 looking to surpass that number. And as the company continues to grow under FCA (with a profitable merger lurking on the horizon), 2020 is gearing up to set the bar higher yet again.

As the automotive world turns the page on 2019, we look forward to an exciting new decade of development—most of which we probably aren’t even able to fathom yet. Who can say what we’ll be driving by 2029? Will we be nearing total automation? Zipping around in flying cars? Will we abandon cars altogether, once we’ve gained the ability to download ourselves to any point in the United States of Bezos?!

Time will tell. It’s far more practical to plan for the coming days, and make ourselves familiar with the changes we actually know are on the way. And while few automakers had a more interesting decade than the folks at Fiat Chrysler, what they have in store for the coming new year indicates a sharp focus on outdoing themselves.

With new innovations and updates to timeless favorites coming down the line as we speak, it’s a great time to familiarize ourselves with the Jeep brand that planted itself firmly at the core of FCA’s success. Because one thing is for certain: no matter where this decade takes us, and no matter how we get there, there will be whole lineup of capable Jeeps making the trip.

Big Ideas Need Big Funds

Last month’s industry bombshell report that Fiat Chrysler plans to merge with PSA Groupe (Peugeot’s parent company) caught many off guard. With plans for a 50/50 split, the joint shareholder-owned entity is set to become the world’s fourth largest automaker, with a combined market value of $50 billion.

While speculation suggests that this may set off a chain reaction of massive auto industry mergers, that has yet to be seen. What we know for certain is that Jeep and its stablemates like RAM, Dodge, Chrysler, and Fiat are now under the same flag as Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, and DS Automobiles.

But to what end will this merger affect the Jeep brand we’ve come to know and love?

Experts believe its primary function will be hurtling the newly-formed auto behemoth’s brands into a future that is now viewed as an eventual certainty: electric powertrains and an ever-increasing degree of automation.

In the past, the cost of engineering an electric platform would have been prohibitively high for the Chrysler Corporation or even Fiat Chrysler. But now, with the investment spread across a global collection of brands, the math begins to make a lot more sense.

While FCA and PSA have been reluctant to make any big leaps toward electricity in recent years, the prospect of their combined pocketbooks going Dutch on the check makes us excited to see what sort of innovation this will mean for the Seven Slot Nation’s 2020 Jeep lineup. And the exciting part is—the future is already here.

Hybrid Beasts

Both the 2020 Jeep Renegade and 2020 Jeep Compass will have an available plug-in hybrid powertrain, consisting of a turbocharged 1.3-liter gas engine that splits duty with an electric motor. Jeep says both models can have a maximum combined output of up to 240 horsepower. A number that should be music to the ears of those afraid to sacrifice oomph when making the switch to electricity.

And if you thought that just the lower-end of the Jeep totem pole—the Renegades and Compasses—would be the guinea pigs for EV experiments, think again. Plug-in hybrid Wrangler prototypes have already been spotted on the open road (with their charging ports discreetly covered), and some suggest we may even see them on sale soon, as a 2021 model.

For a more ‘traditional’ alternative Wrangler, the new EcoDiesel option is already on sale. The go-anywhere chops of the Wrangler have always felt custom-made for the low-end torquey brawn of a diesel engine, and most fans simply can’t believe it’s taken this long to get these two crazy kids together.

The 2020 Jeep Wrangler EcoDiesel uses the same basic diesel engine as the 2020 RAM 1500, a turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6, but with a few tweaks to keep the alternator and injection pump high enough that the Wrangler can still cross semi-deep waters. And with 260 horsepower and 442 lb-ft of torque, there are a lot of people ready to take their JL (voted last year’s Motor Trend SUV Of The Year) somewhere far, far off-road.

But of course, the big news stories from the 2020 Jeep lineup aren’t solely confined to power sources.

The 2020 Jeep Gladiator, based on Wrangler architecture but with a 5-foot steel bed, has piqued America’s interest in a Jeep Pickup for the first time since the retirement of the Comanche in 1992. With-best in-class towing and a host of engine choices (the base 3.6-liter V6 makes 285 horsepower and 260 lb-ft.), it has filled a gap in the Jeep lineup that most weren’t even sure existed, while being niche enough not to detract from its sibling lineup of RAM trucks.

While the 2020 Jeep Cherokee is still a year or two away from the end of its current model’s cycle (KL), The Jeep Grand Cherokee is on the cusp of a full makeover, which is likely to manifest late in 2020 as a 2021 model. While little is known of the coming developments, it has been confirmed that Jeep will be offering a larger, yet-unnamed vehicle on the Grand Cherokee platform, with its first venture back into third-row seating in over a decade. (Remember the Commander? If not, you aren’t alone.)

Resurrected Champs

And no rundown of 2020 Jeep lineup scuttlebutt would be complete without mentioning the rebirth of a few more of their American classics: The Wagoneer and the Grand Wagoneer.

What we know: Dead since 1991, these full-size body-on-frame jobs will hold the flagship position at the top of the whole Jeep food chain, aiming to compete with luxury SUVs like the Navigator and the Escalade. There will be a hybrid powertrain available, and they will be based on the popular DT RAM’s architecture, likely featuring most of the same engine options.

What we don’t know: Pretty much everything else. We’re still quite far from any official release date. But that doesn’t stop hopeful fans’ belief that they could see a prototype dangled before us by the time 2020 is over.

It’s an exciting time to be a Jeep lover.

The 2020 Jeep lineup, and the steps toward further expansion of the booming brand’s fleet in the coming years represent a high water mark for one of the nation’s most iconic symbols of go-anywhere dominance that has been with us since World War II.

So, we hope Armageddon isn’t really upon us, just so we can see all these grand plans come to fruition on the roadways. But if it really does happen, and you see a group of cockroaches rolling past you on a deserted, post-apocalyptic highway in a new 2020 Jeep Gladiator, munchin’ on a family pack of Twinkies, just remember where you heard it first.