The Jeep Cherokee MIA will finally return in 2025 as a hybrid

The Jeep Cherokee will come back from the dead after all. Jeep CEO Antonio Filoso announced the news Thursday at the Los Angeles Auto Show, saying the Cherokee will return in 2025. This time it will be equipped with a hybrid transmission.

After ceasing Cherokee production in 2023Jeep left the door open for a replacement. But what form it will take and where it will be built, remained unknown. Now we at least know part of the equation; As for where it will be built, that remains to be seen. The old Cherokee was built at the Belvidere Assembly plant in Illinois, although the plant has been idle since production ceased.

Neither Filosa nor Jeep North America CEO Bob Broderdorf provided more details about the revived SUV, but report from earlier this year can provide some clues. The 2025 Jeep Recon was originally slated to be an all-electric model built alongside Jeep’s existing lineup of internal combustion and hybrid vehicles, but if this report turns out to be true, it means Jeep is likely developing internal combustion variants of the Recon. If so, it would give Jeep an opportunity to revive the Cherokee formula without necessarily reviving its name –a longstanding dispute with the American Cherokee Nation.

The Cherokee was built in one form or another for 49 years before production ceased last year. The penultimate version (and the last with a solid rear axle) was sold in the United States as the Jeep Liberty (and its twin, the Dodge Nitro). The outgoing model, produced between 2014 and 2023, ditched the body-on-frame/one-piece hybrid design of previous Cherokees in favor of an upgraded front-wheel-drive architecture.

It also filled a pretty noticeable hole in Jeep’s unconventional SUV lineup. While the Jeep Compass is nominally a compact SUV, its European platform makes it a bit smaller compared to the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 of the world, offering equal passenger space but comparatively staggering cargo space. The Cherokee leaned more towards the mid-range, offering competitive space and more capable off-road bits. That formula wasn’t compelling enough to keep Cherokee sales afloatbut will a hybrid offer help? Who knows.

Any tips? Send them to tips@thedrive.com