The Jeep Compass is a premium compact SUV that will rival the Hyundai Tucson, Tata Hexa and the Mahindra XUV500.
The Jeep Compass is all-set to drive in the Indian automotive market in August 2017. Ahead of its scheduled India launch, a report from TOI suggests that the Jeep Compass is likely to be priced in India from 15-16 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for the petrol variant. On the other hand, top-spec diesel iteration is speculated to be priced up to INR 23 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), according to the report. If this is true then the SUV will compete against the Hyundai Tucson, Mahindra XUV500, Tata Hexa and the Honda CR-V, at this price point. Jeep India have opened pre-bookings for the Jeep Compass, which can be made at Jeep dealerships or online on Jeep’s official website at an amount of INR 50,000. The company’s facility at Ranjangaon will act as a manufacturing hub for the Compass’ right-hand drive markets like Australia, UK, Japan and South Africa.
The compact SUV will be locally manufactured at the Jeep India‘s facility in Ranjangaon near Pune while the production is already underway. According to Kevin Flynn, President and MD – FCA India, said, “It was a strategic decision to bring the Compass to India”. Based on FCA’s Small-Wide 4X4 platform, interiors of the India-spec Jeep Compass’ were recently spied while testing in India. The pricing of the Jeep Compass will be kept low thanks to the fact that Jeep is localizing 65% of the parts of the SUV and building it at the Ranjangaon facility of Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles. Right now, the Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Grand Cherokee come at a significant premium in India. Both SUVs are brought into India via the CBU route, which is why they are priced exorbitantly. But the new locally-made Jeep Compass will come at a much lower cost while still retaining the same DNA of the brand. It will share the same looks as the larger Grand Cherokee, and its muscular, solid SUV-like appearance will be a stark contrast to the sleek lines of its key competitors. In terms of space, expect the Jeep Compass to offer slightly more than the Hyundai Tucson, if not the same dimensions. The SUV can seat five and gets a 40:20:40 split rear seat. The Compass will launch in three trim levels in India – Sport, Limited and Longitude which will be the fully-loaded top end. The Jeep Compass compact SUV will be powered by a 1.4-litre MultiAir petrol engine producing 160 BHP and 260 Nm of torque and 2.0-litre Multijet diesel engine delivering around 170 bhp of maximum power and 350 Nm of peak torque. Both engines will come mated to a 7-speed automatic and a 6-speed manual gearbox while the SUV will also get four-wheel drive system as standard across the range.