What is it?

Jeep has hit a hattrick of launches in 2022 in India with the brand-new locally assembled fifth-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee. It’s the new flagship from the American SUV maker and has been officially launched. This is the Grand Cherokee’s second innings with India and was in fact one of the two vehicles that Jeep introduced here when it launched the brand in 2016.

An all-new flagship means Jeep gets to expand its customer base at the higher end. We also get a preview of what will be offered in future versions of the Compass and Meridian both in terms of technology and features.

How is it on the outside?

There’s a sense of familiarity when you look at the Grand Cherokee and that’s mostly because it’s the king of the hill in Jeep India’s lineup. Being the flagship it has all the necessary Jeep traits like its signature seven-slat grille and the rectangular headlamps up front. In profile, you can see that old-school boxy SUV stance thanks to the large flared wheel arches, five-spoke alloy wheels and shape of the roofline. On the side, there is a strong shoulder line and the words ‘Grand Cherokee’ near the front wheel arch.

At the rear, you get rectangular wrap-around tail lamps with the Jeep badging in the middle. At this price point and considering its rivals, the Grand Cherokee is not short of attention if the presence that you are looking for in a vehicle. Where it falls a bit short, at least on initial impressions, is the bling factor that’s popular among buyers in this part of the market. However, we believe that Jeep will offer a range of Mopar accessories to make individual Grand Cherokees a bit shinier for the Indian buyer.

How is it on the inside?

Step into the cabin of this new Jeep Grand Cherokee and you are greeted by a familiar space. It is an all-black space with contrast-coloured stitching and chrome elements on the dashboard. Up front, the steering, dials, touchscreen and even the instrument cluster all feel very familiar as they are very similar to the ones offered in the Meridian and even the Compass to a certain extent. You get a lot of soft-touch plastics and padded materials on all contact surfaces but there’s no hiding the commonality of elements among the Cherokee, Meridian and Compass.

One of the USPs of the front seats is the second screen for the passenger which looks nice with proper integration but is not very bright and in fact, is only easily usable when viewed in the dead-front mode. Despite the lack of brightness, the graphics are really nice and hopefully, they should be visible in direct sunlight.

Given the size of the car, the second row is spacious for three occupants with sufficient headroom and shoulder room but the centre occupant will have to contend with the central AC vents. We expected a screen for the second row as a standard fitment and hope that Jeep will have it in their accessory list.

The boot is huge, and deep (despite a full-sized spare) with a foldable parcel shelf, auto opening function and a 12V socket. The loading lip is high but you get a rubber surface on the edge to hoist items and then slide them into the cargo space.

What’s on the feature list?

The Grand Cherokee is only available in one fully-loaded top-spec Limited (O) trim. Here you get a digital instrument cluster, panoramic sunroof, touchscreen infotainment system with a 10.2-inch display, two-zone climate control with rear AC vents, power front seats, power mirrors, power windows, 360-degree camera, connected car technology, leather seats, HUD, ventilated seats and screen for front passenger with media control.

On the safety front, you get eight airbags, ABS with EBD, ADAS, tyre pressure monitor, hill start assist and stability programme. The feature list is segment-standard and should see the Grand Cherokee have a good base to stand on among its competitors.

What’s under the hood?

The only engine on offer for India with the Grand Cherokee is the 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol that produces 271bhp/400Nm. This engine is mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission and also gets Jeep’s Quadratrac 4X4 system with shift-on-the-fly drive modes for sand/mud and snow. There’s also an auto mode and a sport mode. There’s no diesel engine at all for this fifth-generation Grand Cherokee even globally and instead, it gets Jeep’s 4Xe hybrid technology. The Cherokee being the flagship in the Jeep range looks like a suitable candidate to introduce this tech to India whenever Jeep plans to bring it here in the future. We will of course put the Grand Cherokee through its paces both on the road and off it once we get a chance to drive the car towards the early part of 2023.

What about pricing and rivals?

The Jeep Grand Cherokee in this fifth-generation guise takes on the likes of the BMW X3, Mercedes-Benz GLE, Lexus RX and Range Rover Velar. At the time of writing this first look, the Jeep Grand Cherokee had been priced at Rs 77.50 lakh (Introductory, ex-showroom).