The old “KL” body Jeep Cherokee, based on the CUSW platform (sharing with the Dart, 200, and Pacifica), has been out of production for quite some time now. Its replacement, a new Jeep Cherokee, has mostly been the subject of rumors, but its basic body shape has been seen—no, not in that rendering (though that is the basic idea, as it was imagined in 2021).
The next generation Cherokee will have the body code KM. That is the same body code as the 2025 Jeep Wagoneer S, which has been teased (see below) in realistic rendering form.
There will be differences. The Wagoneer S pictured here is an electric car, period, end of story. It is also a luxury car. It will visually have to be different from the Cherokee, so don’t expect the front or rear to be any clue as to how the Cherokee will look—except that you know it won’t look like that.
The Cherokee, on the other hand, is a mass-market car with a gasoline engine and quite probably a hybrid option. It’s likely to have, standard or optional, the Hurricane4 / GME 2.0T and, possibly, the Hurricane6 straight-six. It’s possible the Cherokee will be four-cylinder only, with the Peugeot 1.6 liter engine in hybrid form, adapted to North American use by Auburn Hills engineers and built in the United States, leading the gas-mileage charge. (That said, if the Cherokee is really not going to have a longitudinal straight six, why is the hood so long?)
Odds are the Cherokee won’t be an electric at all, leaving that to the Wagoneer. However, it will almost certainly provide better performance, both in acceleration and in fuel economy, than the older model; it’s likely to have more space inside, too.
As for offroad driving, the jury is out on the Cherokee. The Wagoneer S in these (renderings?), if they are accurate, doesn’t seem to be meant for offroading. The Wagoneer, despite the historical meaning of the name, is not an offroad beast. However, the Cherokee could be set up with more ground clearance, more suspension travel (with smaller wheels), more sidewall, and so on, possibly with larger wheel openings in front, to at least match the outgoing KL Cherokee—which, lest we forget, did conquer the Rubicon Trail in Trailhawk form.
