Fiat has imported four units of the Jeep Renegade for R&D purposes and this SUV will be launched in 2017 and will be locally assembled.
A lot has been spoken about the launch of the Jeep brand in India and how the brand’s launch has been getting delayed since a long, long time. Earlier this year, MotorBeam had revealed that the Jeep Renegade was patented in India and how the vehicle’s anticipated launch will take place in 2017. Well, it seems that this might just be true because the automaker has imported four units of the Renegade from the United States.
These four units of the compact SUV have been brought down for R&D purposes. The cost of each imported vehicle is around Rs. 17.5 lakhs. In global markets, the Renegade is the lowest offering from the Jeep brand and it is slotted below the Wrangler and Cherokee models. The vehicle comes with butch styling just like other Jeep models and it has a very rugged appeal too. The interiors have a modern design and will be loaded with some nice features.
The Jeep Renegade measures 4.25-metres in length. Fiat will offer either a 1.6-litre or a 2.0-litre diesel engine for the Indian version and we suspect it’ll mostly be the smaller engine to keep costs in check. Also, it will be offered as a locally assembled product because Fiat recently went through a joint venture with Tata Motors to manufacture SUVs at its Ranjangaon plant and the Renegade might just be one of the models to be produced there.
The Jeep Renegade will compete with the Hyundai Creta, Mahindra XUV500, Nissan Terrano and Maruti S-Cross in India. However, Jeep is a slightly more premium company and hence we can expect pricing to be a bit more optimistic than its rivals. The Jeep Renegade in all likelihood will cost anywhere between Rs. 12-18 lakhs and it will be launched in 2017 itself.
Source – Zauba.com