Jeep Recon Vs. Wagoneer S: What's The Difference Between These EVs?
As there is a concerted effort to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, many major car companies have made serious investments in creating electric vehicles for the marketplace, often diminishing or discontinuing things like diesel in favor of the new fuel method. It is rare to see an automaker nowadays that doesn't have at least one EV in its stable, but they are out there. As of this writing, one of the companies slow to the market is Jeep.
In fact, Jeep's parent company, Stellantis, which also owns the likes of Dodge, Ram, Chrysler, and Fiat, has an EV-shaped hole across the board in the United States. However, that is all about to change over the course of 2024 and 2025, as Stellantis will be releasing a great number of these vehicles across its brands. For some, that just means one electric vehicle is headed to the company, but in the case of Jeep, it will be getting two. First, the 2025 model year will deliver the Jeep Wagoneer S, an all-electric version of its popular SUV. Subsequently, it will release the Jeep Recon, a brand-new SUV for the company.
It may seem a little odd that Jeep would launch its EV line with two different SUVs rather than two very different types of vehicles, but just because both are built on the STLA Large platform from Stellantis doesn't mean that they are identical. Let's get into what makes each of these vehicles unique before they launch in the near future.
What is a Jeep Wagoneer S?
The Jeep Wagoneer S is poised to make its way to the marketplace in late 2024, so the full details of what this SUV will be are a little more clear than the new Recon. While this model is connected to the Wagoneer that Jeep revived for the 2022 model year after a nearly two-decade production hiatus, it is not just putting an electrically powered motor in the body of the current model. The frame of the new Wagoneer S is a lot less boxy than the current gas-powered model, taking a sleeker approach more reminiscent of the current Jeep Grand Cherokee than its actual namesake.
This SUV will come standard with all-wheel drive capabilities, and it purports to be able to handle some pretty impressive power and a fairly long range for a single charge. The Wagoneer S should be able to have an output of 600 hp, which is 180 hp more than the current model Wagoneer is able to produce. Stellantis originally was to be "targeting" a 400-mile range on a single charge. However, Jeep's own website currently has the range at the incredibly vague number of over 300, which may mean that it ends up being quite similar to the Tesla Model X's 326-mile range.
Jeep boasts that there will be over 45 inches of digital display across the Wagoneer S's dashboard. Most notably, it features a front passenger display, which allows everything from changing seat features to watching videos.
What is a Jeep Recon?
As opposed to the Wagoneer S, the Jeep Recon EV doesn't have quite as firm of a release date. Some outlets estimate it to come out in or even before 2025, while others don't pencil it in until 2027. Jeep doesn't even have a section on its own website where you can see what has been announced about the Recon or sign up for updates on pre-orders, which the Wagoneer S does indeed have. When both vehicles were announced in 2022, Jeep was planning on having pre-orders begin in 2023, but that obviously didn't happen. Instead, the information about what the Recon will be is a little more vague.
In terms of physical design, the Recon utilizes the same STLA Large platform as the Wagoneer S, but aesthetically, it takes its cues more from the Jeep Wrangler, with a boxy, rugged exterior. It will also be an all-wheel drive vehicle more suited towards off-roading thanks to Jeep's Selec-Terrain traction management system. In terms of its power and range, no numbers have been released, but you would hopefully expect them to be somewhat similar to the Wagoneer S.
We probably won't be getting more specific details about the Jeep Recon until the company finally commits to production and release dates for the SUV. As of right now, there is a lot of speculation and estimation about what this new Jeep will truly be.
May not be just electric
The STLA Large platform that both of these vehicles will use was not built for these particular vehicles. Despite the fact that this was a platform designed for electric vehicles, it is reportedly a platform that is able to support gasoline and hybrid-powered vehicles as well. This gives Jeep some versatility when it comes to the Wagoneer S and Recon. While the initial push for these vehicles to exist was for them to be exclusively electric vehicles, that may not be the case when all is said and done.
Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa recently spoke with Automotive News in April 2024 and said that while these two SUVs will be offered as EVs, there is a chance that gas-powered variations of these two models could hit the market at some point as well. There was no firm declaration that this would happen, but a company's CEO saying these hypotheticals to a news outlet does make it seem like this is an idea that is in development. Perhaps whenever the Jeep Recon finally gets announced, a release date will be when we learn whether these two new steps into the future for Jeep will also include a step back in the past.