Stealing Sales From Tesla And Reclaiming Midsize Market: Jeep’s Resurgence Takes Shape

With the introduction of a new range of electric-only models, Jeep is focused on one thing: stealing sales away from Tesla. But, at the same time, the company doesn’t want to alienate its existing customers and, for the foreseeable future at least, will continue to offer differing powertrains that are designed to appeal to a varied clientele.

Jeep has lost a good chunk of its core buyers by neglecting the midsized segment that it was once strong in. Parent company Stellantis is expected to outline its Jeep strategy at an investor day on June 13th, but there’s one thing that’s evident: the discontinuation of models such as the Cherokee and Renegade impacted sales significantly.

Read: Jeep Mulls ICE Wagoneer S And Recon Amidst Sales Slump

In 2018, the brand saw domestic sales hit as many as 973,227, selling more Cherokees that year than the entire brand managed to in 2009. Fast forward to 2023, and a third of that figure was wiped off in the U.S., with just 643,000 cars sold.

Embracing EVs is one way Jeep plans to up those numbers. The recently unveiled Wagoneer S will reach showrooms by fall, followed by the Wrangler-inspired Recon EV. Antonio Filosa, Jeep’s recently appointed CEO, thinks the new EV duo will be able to entice a new audience to the Jeep brand. Speaking to Automotive News, he said that 75 percent of people who bought their Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid come from other brands. For Jeep’s EVs, he expects those numbers to be as high as 100 percent. “The brands that we are targeting are mainly Tesla … but there are many others,” said Filosa.

But EVs alone won’t be enough if Jeep wants to achieve its target of hitting one million U.S. sales. There’s still the matter of the underserved midsized segment. While the Wagoneer S and Recon fall into that category, a lack of mainstream appeal to Jeep’s existing customer base means that a combustion-powered Cherokee revival is very much on the cards.

See: Jeep Comes To Its Senses, Will Launch New Cherokee In 2025

Filosa said Jeep will get a mainstream midsize option in 2025 powered by a combustion engine. Although he wouldn’t be drawn out on its name, analysts are fairly confident the Cherokee badge will return. It will likely be built on the SLTA Large platform, which means that an EV version could potentially be offered at a later date.

With three, or more, new models coming for the midsized segment, Jeep could start to see a resurgence in its midsize SUV dominance. “We lost a lot of market coverage, but we want to recover market coverage in the next three years, going from the very low 45 percent of market coverage into very promising 85 percent of market coverage in 2027,” Filosa said. “How do we do that? Many product launches for sure.”