Jeep has announced that it will soon end production of the right-hand drive Cherokee. The automaker did not provide a specific timeline for when this would happen for the aging model, but the halt in production would remove the SUV from the Australian market. Car sales have fallen there in recent years.
A Jeep Australia spokesperson told CarExpert.com that the move will allow Jeep to focus more of its marketing and sales resources on “key volume models.” According to the publication, Jeep has fewer than 40 new Cherokees for sale in the country.
51 Photo
Sales for the model have plummeted over the years, with Jeep selling only 382 Cherokes in Australia in 2021. Sales barely exceed those of the SsangYong Korando, and a far cry from 2015, when Jeep sold 6,156 Cherokees in a year. However, a year later, in 2016, sales dropped to 2,079 and never recovered.
Jeep introduced the KL Cherokee for the 2014 model year in the US. Its split-headlight design, now much more common in the industry, turned off many potential customers, with the 2018 redesign leading up to its best-selling year in America – 239,437. However, as in Australia, SUV sales have fallen in recent years, with models down 61 percent through Q3 2022 compared to the same time in 2021. Jeep ended last year with 135,855 Cherokee sales in the US.
According to the publication, Jeep is allegedly working on a replacement for the Cherokee. It could arrive before 2024, but it’s unclear whether the SUV will be a local product or something global – and there’s very little speculation and rumours at this point.
Since the introduction of the Cherokee in 2010, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles merged with the PSA Group to form Stellantis. Jeep is one of more than a dozen brands under the conglomerate’s umbrella, and is a passionate participant in the electric car revolution as the company plans its future products.
The Cherokee hasn’t received any meaningful updates since 2018, and is competing in an increasingly popular segment. It’s time for the second generation Cherokee to appear as sales of the current generation model continue to fall. A significant redesign could make it competitive again.
