CARS OF THE WORLD

Jeep Avenger 2024.

The mysterious all-wheel-drive Jeep Avenger will not appear until 2024.

The smallest crossover Jeep designed specifically for Europe debuted last fall only in front-wheel drive versions (gasoline and electric), and now some details about the upcoming all-wheel drive modification have become known.

Since its debut last October at the Paris Auto Show Jeep Avenger managed to win the European competition «Car of the Year» (Car of the Year 2023) and collect more than 7,000 pre-orders in Europe.

Now the Avenger is available in all European countries with an electric propulsion system (the only electric motor on the front axle makes 156 hp), and gasoline modification with turbocharged 1.2 PureTech (100 hp) is offered only in selected countries — for example, in Italy and Spain.

The Jeep Avenger is produced at the Fiat plant in Tychy, Poland, and the gasoline version is not available in Poland.

The most attractive prices are in Spain: here the base petrol Avenger with CCP (there is no automatic version) on 16-inch stamped wheels costs from 21,800 euros, electric version is much more expensive — from 35,100 euros.

Meanwhile, the brand Jeep showed a conceptual version of the 4×4 together with the serial Avenger, promising that it too will become a serial one in the future, but hiding technical details and a concrete date of its release.

Four-wheel drive concept differs from the serial front-wheel drive crossover by the expanded track, improved geometric capability (ground clearance is more than 200 mm), «toothy» tires, exposed towing loops, additional headlights on the front and special protective trim.

At the ongoing auto show in Brussels, the representative of the British magazine Auto Express asked the head of Jeep Europe Antonella Bruno when the Avenger 4×4 goes on sale.

Antonella Bruno said that 2024 — there is no hurry as front-wheel drive Avenger started very briskly and is doing safely at the box office, but 4×4 version will be served, so to say, for a dessert.

The most interesting thing is that Bruno and other representatives of Jeep cannot confirm that all-wheel drive Avenger will be fully electric, though decorative blue inserts on the concept kind of hint at it.

A hint is given by the name of the concept — 4×4 instead of 4he. Now, the brand Jeep designates plug-in hybrid models able to go only by electric traction with the index 4he.

It’s possible the all-wheel-drive Avenger won’t be able to drive purely on electric power, and its all-wheel drive will either be mechanical or, more likely, will be done in the Toyota Yaris Cross, where the rear wheels are turned by a small auxiliary electric motor that can’t drive the car alone, and the main engine is a gasoline-powered engine.

Recall that the Jeep Avenger is based on the French modular platform CMP, originally developed only for front-wheel drive.

The desire to make all-wheel drive car on the CMP would require either a thorough reworking of the platform, or «palliative» solutions, as in the aforementioned Toyota Yaris Cross.

An all-electric version with a rear auxiliary motor is also a possible option. What solution Jeep will choose in the end, we will know next year.