The Jeep Renegade is about to get a smaller brother and we have new spy photos with it. What you see in the gallery below is a prototype of what is currently known as the “baby Renegade” and this time around, we are dealing with a combustion-powered prototype.
In July this year, we caught an early glimpse of the all-electric variant of the small crossover but as you can clearly see in the attached photos, this trial vehicle has exhaust pipes. It is fully camouflaged and there’s not much to report about its design, but we know it will be smaller than the Renegade and will measure around 4.10 to 4.15 meters (161.4 to 163.3 inches) long.
Gallery: Jeep Electric Crossover New Spy Photos
This is the first time we can take a look inside the cabin. Despite the fact that huge portions of the cabin are disguised, we can see this is a prototype with a manual gearbox. There’s a small tablet-style screen on the dashboard and below it, we see physical buttons for the climate control and the audio system. Two USB ports and an electronic parking brake are also visible on the center console.
The baby Renegade will be based on PSA Group’s e-CMP platform, which is also used by crossover models from Peugeot, Citroen, and Opel. The ICE range will most likely consist of a 1.2-liter turbocharged gasoline engine and a 1.5-liter diesel. A six-speed manual should be standard, while an eight-speed automatic will come as an option.
As far as the all-electric version is concerned, it will share its hardware with the electric Peugeot 2008 and Opel Mokka, meaning there will be a 136-horsepower (100-kilowatt) electric motor powering the front wheels. The electric energy will be stored in a 50-kilowatt-hour battery pack that will allow for more than 186 miles (300 kilometers) of range on a single charge.
The officials at Jeep are still quiet about the launch date of the yet unnamed small crossover, though we expect to see it hit the market before the year’s end. Fiat and Alfa Romeo are also expected to develop versions of this model for their respective customer bases.