FCA had confirmed
in its new 5-year plan this June that it will launch a 3-row mid-size SUV under
the Jeep brand in India by 2022. According to a new report from Moneycontrol,
this model will arrive in 2022.
Jeep already has
two mid-size SUVs on offer internationally - the Jeep Cherokee and the Jeep
Commander/Jeep Grand Commander. A third separate model currently referred to as
a “Low D 3-row” model is planned to arrive by 2022, and this is the one India
could get. The name suggests that we will get a low-cost model not as
sophisticated as the global Jeep Cherokee or even the China-only Jeep
Commander/Jeep Grand Commander for that matter.
FCA knows that to
grow the Jeep brand in India significantly from where it is now it will need to
eventually cater to customers with models priced under INR 10 lakh. So, it has
planned a sub-4 metre SUV too. Going up against the segment leader Maruti
Vitara Brezza as well as the Ford EcoSport and the Mahindra S201, this model
will also arrive in 2022, as per the report.
The new models will
help FCA boost domestic sales and make India an export hub. To serve the higher
demand, the company will increase its annual production capacity by 1.5 times
from late-2017 (160,000 units) to 240,000 units. The Jeep Compass is already
witnessing strong demand in what was otherwise a low-volume segment. FCA sold
25,000 units of the C-SUV within a year from launch in India.
