Jeep's first electric vehicles include an e-bike and hybrid Wrangler
At the beginning of the year Jeep went all in on electric, promising a rollout of electric versions of its rugged SUVs in the coming years. There was even a Super Bowl ad featuring an electric bicycle. Now those plans are finally here.
At an online reveal Thursday, Jeep showed off the Wrangler 4xe, its first plug-in hybrid coming to the U.S. early next year. It looks like a classic Wrangler, but with a charging port.
The 400-volt, 17-kWh, and 96-cell battery pack is smaller than what you'd find in a Tesla or Chevy Bolt, but it gives an added boost of up to 25 miles of 100 percent electric driving. While the 4x4 vehicle can handle the elements and tough roads, the battery pack is beneath the back seats so it doesn't get destroyed while off-roading. Like other Wranglers, the electric model can still ford through up to 30 inches of water.
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It's a plug-in, so to get the electric charge you'll have to, well, plug it in either at a public charging station or at home, though that'll be a slower charge.
The 4xe comes with a lot of choice. There are three models: the standard 4xe, and more powerful Sahara and Rubicon versions. The plug-in hybrid comes in 10 colors: black, bright white, firecracker red, granite crystal metallic, hella yella, hydro blue, sting-gray, snazzberry, sarge green, and billet silver metallic.
Jeep's first electric bicycles will start to be delivered within a few weeks. Jeep partnered with e-bike maker QuietKat to develop the 79-pound Jeep E-Bike with a 750-watt motor and a battery with up to 50 miles of range. The first look at the bike appeared during the Super Bowl with a Bill Murray ad. It has thick 4.8-inch all-terrain tires.
The bicycle is available for online pre-orders and will be in six Jeep dealerships across the U.S. for anyone venturing into showrooms. It starts at $5,899. The hybrid Wrangler doesn't have a price tag yet, but the current Wrangler is about $35,000. Expect the new one to be more — those electric dreams don't come cheap.
Topics Electric Vehicles
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
