The Jeep Grand Cherokee is reportedly set to lose its venerable V6 in favour of a smaller, more efficient four-cylinder powertrain, but there’s still no word on whether it’ll get the new Hurricane inline-six.
Mopar Insiders reports word from insider sources that, for 2025, Jeep will replace the Pentastar 3.6-litre petrol V6 with an updated version of its turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, which already does duty in the Wrangler.
Also reportedly on the chopping block is the 5.7-litre Hemi V8, which Jeep parent Stellantis has been phasing out across its range.
The V8 has never been offered in the current WL-series Grand Cherokee in Australia, but has been offered in North America – though it was axed from shorter, two-row models there last year.
Grand Cherokee 4xe
The move will see the Grand Cherokee exclusively offer four-cylinder engines. The flagship powertrain, offered only in the shorter, two-row body, is a turbo 2.0-litre plug-in hybrid four.
It’s unclear whether Jeep will boost outputs of the turbo four for the large Grand Cherokee.
In the Wrangler, the GME-T4 four-cylinder engine produces 200kW of power and 400Nm of torque. That’s 10kW less but 56Nm more than the Grand Cherokee’s V6.
Grand Cherokee L
It’s unclear if or when the Grand Cherokee will get Stellantis’ Hurricane twin-turbocharged petrol inline-six, which has been replacing the long-running Hemi V8 in products like the Ram 1500.
The former global boss of Jeep, Christian Meunier, told CarExpert in 2022 that such a move was “feasible” but “a question of priority and potential business case”.
Related to the GME-T4 used in the Wrangler and sharing its bore, stroke and cylinder spacing, the Hurricane six is available in multiple tunes and a plug-in hybrid version is planned.
Grand Cherokee
In the larger Jeep Wagoneer L, it’s available in 313kW/635Nm standard-output and 375kW/678Nm high-output tunes.
This engine would shape as a logical successor to the 5.7-litre Hemi V8. In high-output guise, it also out-punches the 6.4-litre V8 used in the hot SRT version of the previous-generation Grand Cherokee, which pumped out 344kW and 624Nm.
The current WL series is the first generation of Grand Cherokee to not offer the option of a diesel engine, with Stellantis moving away from oil-burners globally.
