There’s one less manual pickup on the market as Jeep has announced the 2025 Gladiator will be offered exclusively with an eight-speed automatic transmission. This means the Toyota Tacoma is now the last truck to be offered with a DIY gearbox. That’s sad and perplexing as the only powertrain combination for the 2025 Gladiator is one that was recently killed off in the 2025 Wrangler. In that model, the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 is now paired exclusively to a six-speed manual transmission as the eight-speed automatic is reserved for the four-cylinder, Hemi V8, and plug-in hybrid powertrain. Besides killing the manual, Jeep announced a “price repositioning.” While this sounds like a long overdue move, as the Gladiator cost thousands more than other mid-size pickups, the price has increased from US$ 37,895 to US$ 38,100.
That’s not good, but it works out to be a
savings as the automatic transmission used to be a US$ 2,500 option.
Furthermore, like the Wrangler, it drops crank windows as power windows and
locks are now standard. Besides the extra equipment, there are two new colors
known as Fathom Blue and ’41. The latter is an olive drab-inspired hue that
pays tribute to Jeep’s military history. Like the Wrangler, the truck also
offers a newly available Active Cabin Ventilation system, which enables
customers to remove hot air from the interior via the Jeep Connect app.
While some customers will understandably
be upset that the manual transmission is dead, there’s a new powertrain option
on the horizon as the company reiterated plans to introduce a Gladiator 4xe
plug-in hybrid as part of their plan to “offer an electrified variant of all
Jeep vehicles sold in North America by the end of 2025.”
The model is expected to follow in the
footsteps of the Wrangler 4xe and feature a turbocharged 2.0-liter
four-cylinder engine, a 17.3 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, and an electric
motor. This gives the SUV a combined output of 375 hp and 637 Nm of torque as well as an electric-only range of 34 km.
