The 2022 Jeep Cherokee was the first to drop the 2.4 liter four-cylinder—an engine whose block was jointly designed by Hyundai, Mitsubishi, and DaimlerChrysler, with each company setting up their own air and fuel delivery systems. Under Cerberus and Fiat, Chrysler redesigned these to create “Tigershark” versions; but they remained noisy and, at best, no more efficient than most competitors’ engines.
Once the Cherokee dropped the 2.4, only two vehicles still used it: the Jeep Compass and the Ram ProMaster City. Now, the ProMaster City has been put onto the chopping block, leaving just the Compass.
The recent announcement that FCA US would make Peugeot 1.6 liter engines brought the news that Dundee will be building out the 2.4 liter engines in 2023; and the 2023 fleet car brochure floated on Allpar includes a 2-liter turbo engine for the Compass. This suggests that the 2.0 turbo will be a Compass option, with the 2.4 remaining the base engine through 2023. (The same brochure claimed that the 2.4 was returning to the Cherokee for 2023, and that the 3.2 V6 would not be in the Cherokee at all. This may be a fleet-only specification, or the brochure may have errors—it does, after all, claim that the Compass has an eight-speed automatic, when it has a nine-speed.)
Our first story on this topic speculated that the Jeep Compass would move to the 1.3 turbo engine (177 hp, 210 lb-ft) with and without a hybrid setup. The 1.3 turbo would not be a step up, especially since it needs premium fuel and isn’t sprightly in the lighter Renegade.
In 2024 or even late 2023, the Compass might have a hybrid version of the 1.3 liter GSE engine from the Dodge Hornet. The hybrid would boost gas mileage and fix the 1.3’s acceleration issues; having a standard hybrid, perhaps with a low and high power version, might allow for a little detuning to allow for regular gasoline instead of premium. This option is speculation, for now.
