- Renegade to go green with sales 2020
- Jeep lines in Italy to assemble PHEV
- ‘Ideal location, perfect for the model launch’
MELFI, Italy – Jeep’s FCA Melfi Plant in Italy is tooling-up to assemble a Jeep Renegade Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) with market launch scheduled for 2020.
The SUV will be assembled alongside the standard Renegade and 500X, combustion-engine units already being produced at the same plant.
Pre-production units of the new Renegade PHEV are diarised to start rolling off the lines in 2019 with ”a strong” investment commitment by FCA to train all employees on the new technology; the plant will also be modernised.
Pietro Gorlier, chief operating officer for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, told The Corner in a media release: ”More than 742 000 Renegades have been assembled here in Italy – the ideal location and the perfect product to launch the PHEV.”
READ MORE Jeep features on Carman’s Corner
During an FCA Capital Markets Day on June 1 2018, when the 2018-2022 business plan was presented to the financial community, it was stated that one of the most important change factors addressed in the strategic plan was electrification.
Investments during the plan period result in a portfolio of technical solutions that will enable FCA to comply with the regulatory requirements in each sales region. At the same time, the technology will also be applied to enhance the specific strengths of each brand.
The Renegade PHEV is the next step in FCA’s roll-out of electrification. It follows the launches of the PHEV Pacifica Minivan and the mild-hybrid e-Torque technology launched on the Ram 1500 truck earlier in 2018.
30 HYBRIDS EXPECTED
By 2022, FCA will offer a total of 12 electric propulsion systems (BEV, PHEV, full-hybrid and mild-hybrid) in global architectures.
Thirty models will be equipped with one or more of these systems.
