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- 5.7-liter Hemi V8 won’t return to Grand Cherokee. Stellantis exec Tim Kuniskis says it doesn’t fit the brand’s premium image.
- Focus on brand differentiation. Grand Cherokee and Durango need distinct identities in the showroom.
- Potential for new powertrains. Kuniskis hints at exploring the Hurricane turbocharged inline-six for the Grand Cherokee.
- Future possibilities for SRT-badged models. Stellantis plans suggest a shift towards turbocharged engines over V8s for Jeep.
Bottom line: Stellantis is steering the Grand Cherokee away from the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 to maintain its premium status, and possibly exploring new engine options like the Hurricane inline-six.
AI assisted, editor reviewed
It’s no secret that Jeep is lost in the wilderness and working to get itself back on the right trail. The same can be said for Stellantis as a whole, but Jeep is a crown jewel for the automotive giant, and there are big plans for the iconic brand. A new Scrambler SRT pickup might be splashy in headlines, but the Grand Cherokee butters the bread. Turns out the return of the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 to the Grand Cherokee might have either been overblown or plans have changed. Either is possible, because Stellantis is undergoing a huge overhaul.
In Detroit, Michigan, during an exclusive one-on-one discussion for the latest episode of The Drivecast Head of American Brands, Ram CEO, and Head of SRT, Tim Kuniskis told The Drive, “it doesn’t make sense” when the topic of the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 returning to the Grand Cherokee came up.
Listen to the entire conversation starting at the moment Kuniskis throws cold water on the idea below.
Given The Drive‘s exclusive previous reporting on the topic, I was shocked at this abrupt response from The Father of the Hellcats. So much so you’ll hear me repeat his answer in disbelief as a question, as if I misheard the man. He repeated himself, and didn’t stutter.
“No, doesn’t make sense. I’m in one showroom with four different brands with four different brand identities. We have a V8-only strategy on Durango. Now, we violate that on a regular basis and build some of them with Pentastars, and we do that because we generally run out of V8s. But our strategy is, once we get enough V8s, the Durango will be V8. It will be 5.7, 6.4, 6.2,” Kuniskis explained.
Kuniskis continued by saying, “Once we have availability like that. And those things are working, they’re selling, they’re turning, the strategy’s great. We just run out of V8s and we put the Pentastars in them. Then you look over at the Grand Cherokee and you say, “Okay, why don’t you just put a V8 in that?” No, we have to be focused on: we have four different brand personalities, we have four different brand, you know, customers that we’re trying to attract.”
But differentiating the Grand Cherokee from the Dodge Durango across the showroom isn’t the only reason behind the 5.7-liter V8 not returning to the Jeep.
More surprising was Kuniskis’ statement that followed, “The Grand Cherokee should not be the same as a Durango. The V8 Hemi—the Hemi 5.7 V8—should not be in a very highly refined vehicle like the Grand Cherokee.”
Stellantis executives are viewing the Grand Cherokee as a more premium vehicle than the Durango, and thus, the 5.7-liter Hemi V8, which is now arguably ancient, isn’t refined enough.
Kuniskis acknowledged the fact that without the Hemi the Grand Cherokee lost its 7,200-pound tow rating, which was a standout for the segment.
“Can I do more with it than I have today? Absolutely I can, and will we? Absolutely we will. But it doesn’t make sense to do a 5.7 Hemi,” Kuniskis said, doubling down on the topic while teasing more power in a different form for the Grand Cherokee.
When posed with the question of whether the new Hurricane turbocharged inline-six makes sense for the Grand Cherokee Kuniskis said, “Oh, sure it would. It’d be great. I’m not saying that we’re doing it, but it would be great.” When pressed on the matter Kuniskis kept things ambiguous and non committal without ever closing a door by saying, “I would love to do it. Doesn’t mean I’m going to, but I would love to. There’s a whole bunch of things I’d like to do that I’m not going to do.”
In February, Mauricio Lopez, Jeep’s vice president of sales, told The Drive “I mean, absolutely everything is on the table” when asked if a Hellcat V8, as in the supercharged 6.2-liter V8, will return to the Grand Cherokee lineup resurrecting the Trackhawk badge. Notably, the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 has been in the current WL Grand Cherokee, but the Hellcat’s supercharged V8 has not. It was last seen in the last-generation WK Grand Cherokee. It’s unclear and unknown whether the supercharged powertrain will just drop into the WL chassis.
The Durango Hellcat continues to live its nine lives. Plans revealed during Stellantis’ turnaround presentation shown to investors confirmed an SRT-badged Grand Cherokee is coming. Given Dodge CEO Matt McAlear’s comment to The Drive that “we’re gonna continue to push the limits of this engine [the Hurricane i6] and see what it can do” while confirming that team SRT is actively working on “upgrades we can offer for the Sixpack,” all but points to a possibility that an SRT-badged Grand Cherokee will not have a V8. It might have a super hot turbocharged inline-six, today’s turbocharged Hurricane turbo-six, or both.
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As Director of Content and Product, Joel draws on over 15 years of newsroom experience and inability to actually stop working to help ensure The Drive shapes the future of automotive media. He’s also a World Car Award juror.
