What is it?
Jeep Wrangler EV
What's special about it?
Although it has watered down its brand character with a series of lackluster crossovers in the past few years, Jeep is still known for its rugged off-road vehicles. The 2009 Jeep Wrangler EV Concept represents the brand's best guess as to where the future lies.
This first-generation "development vehicle," as Jeep calls it, uses an advanced lithium-ion battery and a small gasoline engine-generator to power a 200-kilowatt (268-horsepower) electric motor that drives the rear wheels with 295 pound-feet of torque.
That's kind of wussy as far as power goes, although Jeep says it already sells plenty of 2WD models of the Wrangler with less power from a conventional gasoline-burning engine. Fortunately, engineers for Chrysler's ENVI division (it stands for "ENVIronmental") say that to take full advantage of the tremendous torque that an electric motor can provide, subsequent versions of the Wrangler EV could have individual electric motors at each wheel for electric 4WD. What a concept! A rugged rock crawler that really does tread lightly on the environment, running in all-electric mode most of the time for zero emissions and a whole lot less noise pollution than anyone else — except hikers — out on the trail.
The Wrangler EV's hefty battery pack — it measures about 6 feet by 3 feet by 8 inches and contains hundreds of cylindrical lithium-ion cells — can be charged by plugging into conventional 120- or 240-volt outlets.
The charged battery pack is good for about 40 miles of all-electric travel, and then an onboard internal combustion engine kicks in to continue generating electrical power to keep the EV rolling. Jeep says the EV's cruising range is 400 miles using all of the battery power and a 10-gallon tank of fuel for the generator.
On the instrument panel, the Jeep EV concept carries an information screen with one of the neatest displays of any EV or hybrid we've seen. Big, clear graphics show exactly how much electrical power is being consumed at any time and the precise state of battery charge.
Jeep is using a push-button shifter to operate the single-speed reduction gear (Park, Neutral, Drive and Reverse are the only choices), and unfortunately the operating buttons for this concept are too small and also poorly located in the middle of the instrument panel beneath the information screen.
It is unknown when — or if — this concept vehicle will make it into production (although Chrysler says it one day hopes to sell about 100,000 plug-in and all-electric vehicles per year in a variety of models across all of its brands). But if it does, we're hoping the designers move the gear selector down to the center console and make the buttons big and manly.
If the Jeep power and drivetrain system sounds a lot like that on the Chrysler Town and Country EV Concept, that's because the automaker is developing modular EV systems that can be scaled up or down for various models in all three of the company's brands.
Inside Line says: Make it, please, but lose the bling. It's clearly a Jeep even without the chrome logo on the sides. And what's with the shiny plastic door handles and hinge covers? — John O'Dell, Senior Editor, Edmunds Green Car Advisor
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