The start of the New Year won’t be happy for thousands of workers about to lose their jobs at the Stellantis factory in Detroit, Michigan, where the Jeep Grand Cherokee is assembled.
The American automaker, which also owns the Ram, Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat brands, blames California’s emissions regulations for putting the company at a competitive disadvantage with job losses taking effect as early as February 5.
Among other US competitors, Stellantis has been actively pushing back against President Biden’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and boost electric vehicles.
Both Stellantis and Toyota have criticised the White House measure aimed at reducing automobile pollution because its targets would force aggressive and unrealistic sales of electric vehicles, putting a heavy burden on the mineral resources industry.
The two auto giants claim that the proposed emissions reduction goals for cars and light-duty trucks are “overly optimistic” and discriminate against plug-in hybrids.
Since summer, Stellantis has limited its shipments of internal combustion engines and EVs to dealers in the 14 states that have adopted California Air Resources Board (CARB) rules, which are stricter than national criteria.
But this hasn’t prevented Stellantis from spending big on EVs. It will split a USD3 billion bill with Samsung for a battery factory in Indiana, and it’s investing $4.1 billion in a similar facility in Canada.
But Jeep enthusiasts … don’t fret. The US problem won’t impact the 8000 new Jeep vehicles available each year in Australia.
After an explosion in sales, every second vehicle bought in Australia is an SUV, accounting for 57% of new vehicle sales. Passenger cars accounted for just 17%, which means SUVs outsell passenger cars three to one.
If we’re upset about the price of fuel, why do we drive the vehicles we do?
SUVs use more fuel per kilometre than standard cars, according to the International Energy Agency – up to 25% more. They weigh more than standard cars – now about 100 kg more – and emit more carbon than standard cars. In Australia, medium-size SUVs emit 14% more carbon per kilometre travelled than medium-size cars … and larger SUVs emit 30% more than large cars. Yet we’re buying them at a rate that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago.
Still, what better way to drive into the festive season than with Jeep’s flagship five-seat Grand Cherokee Overland? This would be nice under your Christmas tree, so let’s hope Santa can deliver it. Otherwise, you’re up for $98,450 plus on-road costs, or around $105,700, with some options, including the $4500 ‘Luxury Tech Group and the $2750 Off-Road Group, which adds a heavier-duty 230 mm axle.
Premium paint adds another $1750 to the price.
We were given the Overland ‘luxury’ option, which adds ventilated second-row outboard seats, power adjustment and massage features on the driver and passenger front seats, window shades for the second-row seats, a digital rearview mirror, four-zone climate control, and a wireless phone charging pad.
The Grand Cherokee is safer than ever before with a standard kit including Active Emergency Braking and pedestrian/cyclist detection, rear cross-traffic detection, blind-spot monitoring, lane departure warning with active lane keeping, advanced brake assist, front and rear parking sensors and cameras and a tire-pressure monitoring system (TPMS). This records and monitors, in real-time, the air pressure inside the tires.
Jeep took a bit of a hit in the recent ANCAP test results, where the five-door petrol models were only given a four-star rating. But the Grand Cherokee and 4x4e variants received a full five stars.
Jeep claims the Overland uses 7L/100 km of diesel in a combined city and highway cycle while emitting 184g of CO2. It holds 93 litres of fuel to travel 1329 km on a full tank.
The Grand Cherokee’s origins date back to 1983 when American Motors Corporation (AMC) was designing a successor to the smaller Jeep Cherokee.
