Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk not off the table

AS JEEP’S erstwhile five-year-old Grand Cherokee lumbers on towards a late-life refresh at the end of 2016, there is still a fervent desire by the company’s local arm to see ever more powerful performance variants make their way down under.

With 10 per cent of local Jeep Grand Cherokee customers and over 27 per cent of Chrysler 300 buyers opting for the hot SRT variant, discussions around a supercharged V8 version of the Jeeps large-sized SUV are not been dampened by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Australia.

A version of the Grand Cherokee fitted with Chrysler’s 527kW/881Nm supercharged 6.2-litre Hellcat V8 has reportedly been approved for production in the United States, and could be known as the Trackhawk.

Speaking to GoAuto, FCA product planning specialist Callum Maynes said that Australia’s love affair with the performance car means that there is more opportunity available to mount a sales case for them.

“All I can say is that you can look at the sales of cars like the SRT,” he told GoAuto. “It accounts for ten per cent of Grand Cherokee sales. Look at the popularity of AMG locally.

“Look at the 300 SRT it’s right-hand-drive only. It’s not sold in the home market of the United States we kept that program alive through demand for performance cars.”Mr Maynes didn’t rule out the potential for a Hellcat-equipped Grand Cherokee, but stopped short of confirming its existence.

“There’s certainly a demand for performance cars like that whether it will come or not is not for me to say,” he said. “If it was to come out, we’d put our hand up for a right hand drive business case, for sure.”There are no issues with physically fitting the larger Hellcat into the right hand drive Grand Cherokee body, according to Mr Maynes.

Should it eventuate, it would instantly outgun every other performance SUV on the planet, including the likes of Mercedes-AMG’s 430kW/760Nm GLE63 S, the 423kW/750Nm BMW X5, the 405kW/680Nm Range Rover Sport SVR and the 419kW/800Nm Porsche Cayenne Turbo S.