Jeep's CEO Mike Manley has announced "some pretty exciting news" for the Grand Cherokee at next week's New York Auto Show.
While Manley didn't go into any further details while speaking to TheDetroitNews, in a recent interview with Autonews, he had revealed that Jeep will drop a 6.2-liter, supercharged, Hellcat engine into a Jeep Grand Cherokee "before the end of 2017."
Placing the 6.2-liter supercharged engine from the Challenger and Charger SRT Hellcat under the hood of the Grand Cherokee could make it the fastest accelerating SUV in the world, dropping the 0-60mph time in the mid 3 seconds.
It remains to be seen what the manufacturer has in store as a premiere for the 2016 New York Auto Show, however, in related news, Jeep will present a common replacement for the Compass and Patriot in the fourth quarter of 2016.
“There’s no delay,” he told reporters during a press briefing for Jeep's Moab Utah Safari. “It’s perfectly on track and we’re very pleased with where it is. It’s just a nod to the importance of how well Brazil has done with Renegade and secondly a nod to that market and how we see it being developed.”
The compact vehicle, the name of which hasn’t been disclosed yet, will be produced in Pernambuco, Brazil, and it will be presented at the firm's plant, ahead of the assembly start. It will ride on a stretched version of the Renegade's architecture and will utilize its 2.0-liter four-pot mill, mated to a 9-speed auto, with a six-speed manual also in the cards. The new SUV will probably go on sale next year.
Note: 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT pictured