Can the Avenger get Jeep back on track?

Off-road firm confident EV will reverse sales slump-down 25% in Europe this year

Jeep is having a miserable time inthe UK. Sales were down a huge 69% in the first nine months of the year to just 2036 cars, according to figures from the SMMT, as buyers are seemingly falling out of love with the Renegade and Compass, the SUV specialist’s core models.

“Jeep sales in the UK are deeply disappointing,” admitted an executive within the Stellantis-owned company on condition of anonymity.

In fact, nowhere in Europe is the iconic American brand doing really well apart from Italy, which manufactures both models and accounts for half of all Jeep's sales in the region.

Its sales are down by 25% to the end of August, figures from the ACEA, the European industry body, show.

“We had a lot of issues with powertrains not being adapted to the market, we had alot of tax disadvantages and we ended up not getting the momentum we deserve,” said Jeep CEO Christian Meunier.

In the UK, Compass sales were hampered by the initial decision to build British righthand-drive models in India, which saddled it with lower levels of technology than

buyers had come to expect, added Meunier.

That has been resolved with the decision to move the facelifted version, which started filtering into the market earlier this year, to the Renegade factory in Italy.

Meanwhile, the high official emissions of both the Renegade and the Compass has been partially offset

by the launch of plug-in hybrid 4xe versions of both cars, with the effect that PHEVS accounted for 35% of all UK Jeep sales to the end of September.

It wasn't enough to halt the slide, however.

Executives are convinced that the Jeep brand, defined by the Wrangler off-roader, is sound. The 'access premium'

or 'premium to mainstream' middle ground that it occupies gives it appeal and pricing power, or so the theory goes.

The sales slump is simply due to the products, they contend.