First Impressions

“I’m in Austin, Texas and this is the third Grand Cherokee model that I’ve driven in the last year and arguably, it’s the most important for the future of the Jeep brand. This is the 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe.”    

For those who are unaware, 4xe is Jeep’s way of saying that this 2-row Grand Cherokee is electrified. It’s the second model in their lineup to get the plug-in hybrid treatment, following up the successful Wrangler 4xe.

On the exterior, this looks like any other new Grand Cherokee save for subtle Surf Blue accents and of course a charging port.

The 4xe is powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 engine paired with two electric motors and a 17 kWh battery. That will give you 375-horsepower, 470 lb-ft of torque, and up to 25-miles of all-electric range.

 “I’m currently driving in the all-electric drive mode and first impressions? It’s incredibly quiet, acceleration is very smooth, there’s plenty of pep even for a PHEV of this size, and it has a pretty strong regen braking. The one I’m using right now is not quite one pedal drive but it’s definitely recouping a lot of energy.”   

Jeep planned the first stop on our drive exactly 25 miles away and my gas engine turned on just one mile short of our destination. Recharge time for the battery is about 3 and half hours.

There are three drive modes to choose from. Electric, which drives EV only until the battery reaches minimum charge. E-Save, which allows you to save battery charge for later. And then hybrid, which uses both the electric motor and gas engine.

“I’m in the hybrid mode now because I have depleted the battery but the turbo-4 paired with this electric motor has plenty of power. I’m thinking about my time with the V6 Grand Cherokee a couple of months ago and this allows this instant ‘umph’ that feels incredibly comfortable in a vehicle of this size. And the larger Grand Cherokee L won our Best Large Utility for our 2022 Drivers’ Choice Awards and I’m just remembering all of the reasons why…the amazing Quadra-Lift air suspension, the McIntosh audio system, the really really fast and intuitive Uconnect 5 system. So adding electrification to the Grand Cherokee has only made it better.”

Yep, the 4xe’s interior is just as impressive as the rest of the Grand Cherokee lineup. Among the standard features are a passenger screen, heated steering wheel, panoramic sunroof, and ambient interior lighting. There are no clues that this is a PHEV inside except for the dash cluster, a battery charge indicator, and the blue stitching that the Trailhawk gets.

And speaking of Trailhawk, it wouldn’t be a flagship Jeep product if we couldn’t properly take it off-road. The 4xe is available with Jeep’s two better 4x4 systems: Quadra-Trac II or Quadra-Drive II. The Trailhawk gets the latter so we took it rock crawling.

“This thing makes crawling so easy. It’s having no issues at all whatsoever.”

But don’t worry about scraping up the battery because it is protected by a steel skid plate on every 4xe.

“Oooh, that was a pretty soft landing. Alright. That was a pretty soft landing.”

The 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe starts just under $60,000 with Summit Reserve models reaching prices over $75-grand. 

So you may be paying a premium for electrification but there are no compromises here. The Grand Cherokee 4xe is still a worthy flagship.

We’ll have more on an all things 4xe coming up soon on MotorWeek!