The turning away from the classic Jeep has already begun in 2014, when the first Jeep was produced outside the USA. There were two of them, the Renegade and the Compass, which were probably also mainly constructed in Italy, identical in construction to the Fiat 500x.

That was a completely different architecture. Instead of a longitudinal engine with transmission from its output to the rear and to the front axle, there was now transverse a front-wheel drive with, as an option, an additional drive to the rear axle. The engines were downsized and supercharged, all in all a more environmentally friendly solution.

No, let's not argue about off-road capabilities right now. We're going a little way towards electric propulsion. For this purpose, the optional two-wheel drive is omitted. Whoever buys one of the two plug-ins always has four- wheel drive, because instead of the connection to the rear there is now an electric drive.

How all this works will probably be left to a test. Driving 50 km purely electrically and then going off-road will probably not be very successful and vice versa, after a ride through the countryside there will probably be too little electric energy left for a city ride without local emissions. So even the automatic switching at the entrance of a city based on geo-data is of little use.

After all, the otherwise successful Jeep manufacturer now also decides to take high-voltage components on board, so to speak, instead of paying Elon Musk handsome compensation money. After all, even the classic Wrangler has been spotted with a type 2 socket. Below as an addition the Compass dashboard.

However, it is highly doubtful whether the Europe-wide shop network offered by FCA in connection with these two vehicles makes sense. Who will take the trouble to reload every 50 km for over an hour? And how does the battery life behave if a plug-in always has to be charged to 100 percent to have this range at all?