Jeep Wrangler SUV spotted testing in India

American SUV brand Jeep, a part of the Fiat-Chrysler group, will launch its first product in India in the form of the Wrangler SUV. The Wrangler will be followed by the Grand Cherokee model. Jeep will take a top down approach in the Indian car market, with both the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee models being imported through the completely built unit (CBU) route. 

Both the Wrangler and the Grand Cherokee SUVs have been spotted testing on highways in and around the city of Pune. Pune is close to Ranjangaon, the location of Fiat factory in India. The latest spotting of the Jeep Wrangler four door model is from the Pune-Aurangabad highway. The Wrangler was spotted by Team-BHP reader Mr. Pritish Suryawanshi. 

The Wrangler SUV comes in two door and four door variants. Both the variants have been spotted testing in India. Internationally, the Wrangler SUV is available with two engine options: a 3.6 liter V6 petrol engine and a 2.8 liter-4 cylinder turbo diesel motor. While the 3.6 liter petrol engine outputs 280 Bhp and 347 Nm, the diesel motor delivers 197 Bhp and 460 Nm (in Automatic guise).

The manual gearbox equipped diesel engined model outputs 197 Bhp-410 Nm. Although a 6 speed manual gearbox is offered on the Wrangler internationally, a five speed automatic is expected to be standard on the Indian version of the SUV considering the fact that luxury cars in India are preferred with automatic transmissions.

It remains to be seen whether Jeep will sell both the petrol and diesel versions of the Wrangler in India or whether only the diesel version of the SUV will be sold. The Wrangler will be sold through independent Jeep dealerships that Fiat India plans to establish across 10 major Indian cities by the end of this year. 

The Grand Cherokee will follow the Wrangler into India early next year. After marking its presence in the country with the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee, Jeep will launch mass market products from next year. The B-segment and C-Segment SUVs are two products lined up for 2014 and 2015 respectively. The B-Segment SUV will be based on the Fiat 500X platform. Click here to read more about the Jeep B-Segment SUV.