Jeep was to make an Indian entry in 2013 and that is no fancy speculation or anything but an official word from Fiat/Jeep’s Roadmap back in December 2012. However, latest reports suggest that the company is eyeing this year (2015) to officially launch its products here.
According to an earlier Autocar report, it was claimed that Jeep’s smallest Renegade will be launched in India as a B-Segment SUV who went onto say that Jeep may price it competitively at starting price tags of Rs 10 lakhs. In its latest report, Autocar has quoted Jeep’s CEO Mike Manly who said that they may develop a sub-Renegade SUV considering the rising interest of the compact SUV segment worldwide.
However, he also cleared that there is no ‘business case’ for them yet regarding such a compact SUV at this point. He added that Jeeps are known for their capabilities and it would be difficult to produce a smaller-than-Renegade SUV maintaining the same, since smaller cars are less capable and also less profitable. Citing the example of Fiat Panda Cross, he added that the company does have the know-how within the group.
If a sub-Renegade Jeep indeed goes into production, it would be interesting to see how will Jeep maintain its brand which is known for its ruggedness and as Mike said, capabilities!
Related: Jeep to Produce Fortuner-rivaling SUV from India!
