Jeep Cherokee Leaving Australia As Proper-Hand-Drive Manufacturing Ends

Jeep has introduced that it’s going to finish manufacturing of the right-hand-drive Cherokee quickly. The automaker didn’t present a selected timeline for when this may occur for the getting old mannequin, however discontinuing manufacturing will take away the SUV from the Australian market. Gross sales of the automobile have fallen there in recent times.

A spokesperson for Jeep Australia instructed CarExpert.com that the transfer will permit Jeep to focus extra advertising and marketing and gross sales assets in “key quantity fashions.” Based on the publication, Jeep has fewer than 40 new Cherokees on the market left within the nation.

Gross sales for the mannequin have drastically declined over time, with Jeep promoting simply 382 Cherokees in Australia in 2021. It barely outsold the SsangYong Korando, and so they had been a far cry from 2015, when Jeep bought 6,156 Cherokees in a yr. Nevertheless, a yr later, in 2016, gross sales would fall to 2,079 and by no means recuperate.

Jeep launched the KL Cherokee for the 2014 mannequin yr within the US. Its split-headlight design, now rather more frequent within the business, turned off many potential prospects, with a 2018 redesign resulting in its greatest gross sales yr in America – 239,437. Nevertheless, very similar to in Australia, gross sales of the SUV have fallen in recent times, with the mannequin down 61 p.c by Q3 2022 in comparison with the identical time in 2021. Jeep ended final yr with 135,855 Cherokee gross sales within the US.

Based on the publication, Jeep is allegedly engaged on a Cherokee alternative. It may arrive earlier than 2024, but it surely’s unclear if the SUV will likely be a neighborhood product or one thing world – and there’s little greater than hypothesis and rumors in the meanwhile.

For the reason that Cherokee’s introduction within the 2010s, Fiat Chrysler Vehicles merged with PSA Group to kind Stellantis. Jeep is certainly one of greater than a dozen manufacturers beneath the conglomerate’s umbrella, and it’s an ardent participant within the electrical automobile revolution as the corporate plans its future merchandise.

The Cherokee hasn’t obtained a significant replace since 2018, and it competes in a well-liked phase that’s solely getting more durable. It’s about time for a second-generation Cherokee to emerge as gross sales of the current-gen mannequin proceed to fall. A major redesign may make it aggressive once more.