Usually, seeing the bottom of a new car at a launch event is a sign that something was terribly wrong. Even before I had touched the steering wheel of the new JEEP Grand Cherokee L, however, I had seen him stripped to Bare Metal. The automaker knows that the perceived quality is key to push the first Luxury group of Grand Cherokee, and involving a tour where they build it, and a preview of what will come.
Everything is happening at the Detroit Mack Mack complex, a factory of 3 million square feet in the heart of Detroit. Generally known as Mack, until less than two years ago, it was the home of the family Pentar del FCA engine. Now, $ 1.6 billion later, is something much more special.
The Mack site has been used for manufacturing for more than a century, but this renovation for the Jeep Grand Cherokee family makes it the first new assembly plant in Detroit for three decades. The result is a trio of buildings: the body store, the painting store and the general assembly, where the new SUV joins, laser soldier, painted and polished, and then joined with its engine, drivetrain, cabin tech and everything the rest. , Before running through a battery of testing.
Jeep, now part of Stellantis, is clearly proud of the Mack Reborn. The tours of the factory are not atypical, but seeing a running production line for a car still to reach the dealers remains relatively unusual. Then, again, the Grand Cherokee L is quite unusual, too.
It is the first version of three rows of the automaker, an expired development that could say, since the three quarters of sale in your segment are now 6 or 7 places. The Grand Cherokee has been good for Jeep over the years; Even the outgoing generation remains the best-selling model of the company. The problem is that the segment is changing, and it is also jeep.
The new Grand Cherokee L of 2021 is the first step in that process. Longer than the current model, to adapt to that third row of important seats, it will be followed by a two-row Grand Cherokee that will also be built on Mack. That will come later in the year.
However, what is really intriguing, is the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe. That will be a two-row hybrid, borrowing the new PHEV badge that Jeep was already used in Wrangler 4xe. As with that smaller SUV, you will have a gas engine combined with a battery and an electrical unit.
JEEP is not spilling details in the exact configuration: The Grand Cherokee L will offer a V8 V6 or 5.7 liter option of 3.6 liters, while the 4xE Wrangler stops a 2.0-liter turbo-4 with electric motors, but expectations are Silently high for your reception. Launched only a few months ago, the 4xe Wrangler has been a success for Jeep (it helped, no doubt, by some particularly juicy lease deals) and, as well, at this time, has not diluted the reputation of the company for the talent “Go to nowhere”.
The car factories work much more slowly than I suspect that most people imagine them. The vision is always one of the robotic turn arms, turning the robotic arms with sparks prostitutes, and yes, Mack is not short in the mechanized helpers of him. There are hundreds of robots in the production line, helping with everything, from assembly and laser measurement, SUV shell, to paint it, to help load in wiring harnesses and other components.
Their actions are unpleasant, however, and punctuated with pauses. Mack’s measured nest takes around 36 hours per car, and what is important is not both the machines that help with the workload, but the work they are really doing. There is a signature on glue and isolation, a more rigid body and a much more complex electric architecture, all on behalf of making the new Grand Cherokee more refined, more rewarding on the road, and can compete at a time when the Technology and active technology. The driver’s assistance systems are as important as the grades of horsepower and trailer.
In short, Jeep is not leaving nothing at random. Of course, there is, of course, just a guided tour of a factory can show you. It is easy to get fascinated by the ballet of the robots, or square feet of several million square feet of the production plant, or, in fact, medium assembled automobile tracks that open up and even on the installation.
If there is only one meal to take, then, maybe this is. Jeep is putting its best foot forward with the New Grand Cherokee L, betting more than a billion dollars in the renovation of the factory, which is hosted with the most important model of the company, and making electrification a central part of the History of SUV The stakes are high, then, but with sales in the category, they are also potential rewards.
