The Jeep Avenger 4xe Is A Tiny Hybrid 4x4

The Jeep Avenger took everyone a little by surprise when it won the 2023 Car of the Year award. It’s not that there’s anything fundamentally wrong with it - indeed, when we drove the fully electric version recently, we rather liked it.

It just seemed a bit of a left-field pick, but with charmingly rugged looks, reasonable pricing and a choice of full EV, mild hybrid or pure petrol versions, it obviously swayed enough of the Europe-wide panel of car journalists who vote on the yearly gong.

The only thing it’s really lacked so far is something that seemed a glaring omission for something with a Jeep badge - a four-wheel drive version. Yes, it’s primarily built for the European market and therefore shares its underpinnings with a load of other little cars from the Stellantis empire, but even so, a Jeep that’s only available with front-wheel drive just seems… wrong.

Jeep obviously thinks so too, because it’s confirmed an upcoming four-wheel drive hybrid version, complete with a design sketch that suggests a chunky, baby overlander vibe.

It’s the latest car to bear Jeep’s 4xe badge, which denotes a four-wheel drive hybrid. The internal combustion element is a 134bhp petrol unit. Jeep hasn’t said which one, but it’s a foregone conclusion that it’ll be the same 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder that powers the existing petrol and hybrid Avengers.

The electric parts of the equation, meanwhile, are a pair of 21kW motors, one on each axle. Jeep says these will be capable of delivering almost 1400lb ft of torque to the rear wheels. Before you get all excited about a compact hybrid crossover that’ll dust a Stage 3 Nissan GT-R off the line, it’s likely Jeep has reached this figure by multiplying the electric motors’ torque by the available gear ratios. Sneaky.

The gearbox is a six-speed dual-clutch unit which is connected to both the combustion engine and electric motors, allowing for pure electric driving at low speeds.

We’ve only got one design sketch of the production car, but it looks a lot like 2022’s Avenger 4x4 concept. It’s got a wider track, knobbly tyres and a raised ride height, all of which nicely complement the base Avenger’s squat, beefy looks. There are also some acid green flashes that look straight from some late-noughties Xbox promotional materials.

The more adventure-ready looks, combined with the fact that the car in the sketch is caning it across a muddy surface, suggest that Jeep wants to position the 4xe as a proper off-roader.

While the Avenger shares its underpinnings with a swathe of city cars, Jeep has a habit of imbuing even its smaller 4x4 crossovers with a decent level of off-road ability, so we’d expect the 4xe to be able to hold its own alongside something like a Fiat Panda 4x4 or Dacia Duster.

Pricing and full specs will be announced by the end of the year, but we’d expect it to land somewhere close to the full BEV version, which currently starts at £34,800.