The “other” Jeep Commander survived restyling: the crossover lost to its namesake in interior design

By Lukas Müller On Nov 3, 2022

The three-row SUV destined for China has been tweaked on the exterior design, but the interior has not been touched upon by the reform. The technology is also the same.

In 2005-2010 The Jeep frame SUV was called the Commander, but now two different three-row crossovers with a load-bearing body and front-wheel drive “in the base” bear this name. Just a few days ago, the SUV for Latin America debuted, its assembly was established in Brazil, it has a factory index H6 and is based on the Small Wide 4 × 4 platform, which also underlies the Jeep Compass. And in China, since 2018, under the name Commander, a cross has been produced (factory index K8), which shared the Compact Wide “cart” with Cherokee. And so the “celestial” model survived the planned restyling, the premiere took place at the Chengdu Motor Show, which opened last weekend.

Updated Jeep Grand Commander for China

More precisely, in the PRC, the crossover is presented as the Jeep Grand Commander: “just” the Commander there was an exclusively five-seat gasoline version, but it has already been removed from the range. The current SUV with a prefix is available in both seven and five-seater versions. In addition, the model has a rechargeable hybrid version – it comes only with a two-row interior, but is also called the Grand Commander.

The SUV received new bumpers and headlights, in the branded slots of the radiator grill, instead of the grid, there may be chrome “touches”. The lights have also been replaced: the sections floating on the tailgate have LED “sprouts”, in addition, they are united by a plate on which the inscription Grand Commander flaunts. The fifth door itself is also different, and the license plate was moved a little lower (but it is still on the trunk). The hybrid now has a blue uppercase “e” instead of the PHEV nameplate.

Due to the new body kit, the length has increased by 22 mm to 4895 mm, the width of the restyled SUV is 1896 mm (+4 mm compared to its predecessor), the height is 1754 mm (+16 mm). The wheelbase has not changed – 2800 mm.

Updated Jeep Grand Commander for China

The interior of the Grand was not affected by the reforms, there are still analog instruments with a 7-inch color display between the “wells” and an 8.4-inch multimedia system touchscreen integrated into the front panel. Note that the Brazilian Jeep Commander has a more modern interior: inside, such a cross repeated the upgraded related Compass, that is, the three-row model has a full-fledged virtual “tidy” and a “floating” multimedia tablet with a diagonal of 10.1 inches.

In China, the top-end Grand Commander, as before, still has three-zone climate control, adaptive cruise control, an auto-braking system and a panoramic roof.

Updated Jeep Grand Commander PHEV for China

The technology of the Chinese SUV is also the same: a 2.0 petrol “turbo four”, which produces 234 hp on the front-wheel drive Grande. and 350 Nm, and on all-wheel drive – 265 hp. and 400 Nm, the motor is combined with an uncontested nine-speed automatic ZF. The hybrid installation includes a 2.0 turbo engine, a pair of electric motors and a battery with a capacity of 13 kWh, such a crossover can travel 70 km only on electric traction, however, this figure is calculated according to the outdated NEDC cycle.

Pre-reform Jeep Grand Commander for China

The restyled Jeep Grand Commander costs from 239,800 yuan, which is equivalent to about 2,724,000 conventional units at the current exchange rate. The hybrid cross is now available in only one configuration (previously there were three versions), taking into account the subsidy from the state, it will cost 309,800 yuan (3,519,000 conventional units). Outside of China, this Jeep has not yet appeared.