Jeep has conquered many hearts over the years, and its popularity keeps steadily rising. The iconic brand for outdoor lovers has also chosen the path of electrification, which has been very well received indeed. The Avenger earned also top marks right after its introduction. It is designed and built in Europe, and is – for the time being – available only on our EU markets.

The Jeep Avenger Electric is only front wheel drive, but has the cutest proportions and overall looks, and just that makes it so desirable. It is unmistakably “Jeep”, and small styling details both inside and out remind you of this. We tested for you this ultrasmooth (urban) icon, just read further…

Hans Knol ten Bensel

Indeed, the looks and proportions are top notch, whereby the overall dimensions remain beautifully compact. Overall length is only 4,08 meters, which is 16 cm shorter than the Renegade. Of course, the platform comes from the Stellantis group, is built in Poland in the state of the art Tychy plant and harbours the latest EV technology, of which much more here below. The side view is marked by the classic trapezoidal wheel arches, allowing more wheel travel for maximum articulation. The seven bar grille is of course classic Jeep…

At the rear, the Avenger carries signature-lights inspired by the classic X fuel cans. This “X” is a recurring theme inside and outside via the “X-Camo”, a pattern which combines the concept of “camouflage” with the letter “X”. Cute!

Practical

The interior space feels in our modest opinion “just right” and the height is wonderfully suited to get in and out of the car most easily. The clean design of the dashboard breathes the “design to function” premise. It was inspired by the Jeep brand’s history and particularly by the Jeep Wrangler. It certainly looks refreshing and we just loved it

The upper part of the dashboard is shaped by a single horizontal function ‘beam’ which includes all the air vents, ambient lighting and a centrally located 10.25 inch touch screen, which can be seen by both the driver and passenger. The lower side of the dashboard is then marked by a wide-open storage shell, where you can put not less than 34 liters of all your stuff which you think are unmissable in your daily life. Below the buttons controlling the automatic transmission, this space has a neat folding magnetic cover which let you hide it from other’s eyes… Below it you can for example charge a cell phone while simultaneously storing a 1.5-liter bottle of water.

The front seats are electronically adjustable and can be had with massage function, and we found them quite comfortable indeed. Boot space is good with 380 liters, and is practical with the sill height lowered to 72 cm. Also the boot lid which is more than 1 meter wide.

Second generation BEV powertrain…

The second-generation 400 Volt electric powertrain is the first one to be launched by Emotors, a joint venture between Stellantis and Nidec Leroy-Somer Holding. It supplies 115 kW, corresponding to 156 horsepower, and 260 Nm of maximum torque. This means zesty performance…It runs on the “small” STLA platform. We tell you here that Stellantis has designed four EV platforms. STLA Small platforms vehicles will house packs with capacities between 37 kWh and 82 kWh. STLA Medium EVs will carry between 87 kWh and 104 kWh, STLA Large will use packs of 101 kWh and 118 kWh, and the big STLA Frame will require between 159 kWh and 200 kWh packs. 

Each platform can be built to up to 2 million units a year. Volume and a high degree of shared components are of course key for both speed to market as well as cost control, according to Stellantis.

There will be three core drive modules that package the electric motor together with the transmission and power inverter. These drive modules also will be suitable for front-, rear-, and all-wheel drive applications, as well as 4xe in the case of plug-in hybrid Jeeps. So much here about the Stellantis platform strategy.

As rather typical for an EV, the acceleration leaves little to be desired. It will sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in 9 seconds. A rapidly diminishing range will prevent you to put your right foot very deeply on the motorway, and therefore the engineers already limited the top speed to 150 km/h.

A useful range.

The new 54 kWh battery, which is also produced by Stellantis, is made up of 17 modules and 102 cells utilizing NMC 811 Lithium-Ion chemistry and delivers 400 km of range in the WLTP cycle, which becomes 550 km in the urban cycle, still according to Stellantis.

The battery, is found under the front and rear seats and the central tunnel. Furthermore, it is protected by a high ground clearance and underbody skid plates during off-road.

Speaking of range, in the real world where we drove the Avenger in winter, and this affects of course battery performance. The range using the heating normally and doing some brisk highway and motorway driving at the legal maximum speeds, is reduced to some 230 km, with close to 300 km available when you use the Avenger exclusively for (sedate) urban driving. We said it already many times before in these columns, the smoothness and silence of E propulsion is just wonderful, and indeed the Avenger is a pure delight to drive.

Off road talent maintained…

The full electric Avenger we tested is only front wheel drive. But make no mistake, it is a Jeep. Therefore, it is equipped with standard Selec-Terrain® and Hill Descent Control which, together with the good  approach and departure angles and the vehicle’s ground clearance, make it very fit to discover nature’s off road paths. We tried it, and indeed we were astonished…

The Selec-Terrain® system offers six modes: “Normal” for everyday driving; “Eco” to enhance range; “Sport” for more driving fun; “Snow” for maximum traction on icy roads or trails; “Mud” to optimize mud performance and to enhance grip; and “Sand” to limit the risk of becoming stuck on sandy soil.  Needless to say that we used on the open road almost exclusively the ”Eco” mode…

Infotainment and driving aids…

The Avenger offers of course Android Auto and CarPlay; you can mix and match content to build your own interface (up to twelve widgets per page, up to six pages); you can enjoy embedded navigation by TomTom with enhanced natural voice recognition; and last but not least over-the-air updates. 

The new Jeep Avenger also offers a suite of remote services and functionalities. For example, thanks to the Jeep Mobile App, users can locate the location of their cars directly from their smartphones. Users can even lock and unlock their doors, check the battery level, set the climate functions and recharge the vehicle, as well interact directly with the Avenger through a vocal assistant.

The Avenger offers also Level 2 autonomous driving, which automatically adjusts speed and trajectory, and makes use of Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Centering. We found it together with the “zen” character of E driving quite relaxing indeed…

We liked the pleasant compact dimensions of the Avenger, yet offering excellent head and legroom fore and aft even for tall adults. It is a marvelously well balanced car with, as we said earlier, pleasing and iconic looks and proportions.    

Conclusion

The Avenger has many qualities which impressed us greatly. It looks good, drives beautifully, offers enough room for four adults and their luggage, is marvelously fit for urban use and is also surprisingly well at home on unhardened country roads. It is also an excellent cruiser, comfortable and silent, but when you have Gran Turismo high speed aspirations, look rather for the hybrid version.
We look forward to testing this e-Hybrid version soon…

Hans Knol ten Bensel

We shot the photos here again with our Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ-1000. The mid winter light lacklustre conditions were very well mastered with sufficient colour rendition, brightness and contrast. The Leica Vario Elmarit aspherical f 2.8-4 25-400 mm lens delivers excellent sharpness also at full lens openings.