Jeep’s first U.S.-market battery-electric vehicle has finally arrived, carrying a range rating and a $71,995 sticker price for the Launch Edition. The 2024 Wagoneer S is now reaching dealerships, and it’s about time—if not overdue. The large five-seat electric crossover SUV sits squarely in the premium end of the EV market, and the version we tested stickers at about $72,000 including the mandatory destination fee. Only about 4,000 model-year 2024 versions were built, all with the high-spec Launch Edition trim.
The brand’s new leader, senior vice president Bob Broderdorf, said the company will target three groups of potential buyers for the Wagoneer S.
The second group is diehards in “the Jeep space,” the true 4×4 crowd who prize Jeeps for their go-anywhere qualities. The Wagoneer S does not appear built for off-roading. The topic did not come up in the media briefing—and its 6.4 inches of ground clearance will keep it away from the kinds of rock-climbing the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk 4xe (at 10.9 inches) can do.
The quickest Jeep ever has a polarizing design
Superlatives always excite car marketers, so right up front we learned the Wagoneer S is the quickest Jeep ever. Its pair of 250-kw (335-hp) motors deliver a 0-to-60-mph acceleration time of 3.4 seconds. That’s one-tenth of a second faster than the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, with its supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 engine producing 707 horsepower.
From the front, the traditional seven-slot grille has morphed into seven fins on a blanking plate with LED accent lights that illuminate the design. Designers described it as a “confident face” despite the significant bevel from the hood surface down to those fins. The side profile is adequately Jeepish, with the characteristic metal lettering spelling out the model name standing proud on the lower front doors.
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It’s at the rear where the brand identity gets lost. There’s a “4xe” badge, just like all those plug-in hybrids the company has sold, and narrow, full-width LED taillights. The very steeply raked rear window is cleverly disguised by a large basket-handle roof spoiler whose vertical side supports give the Wagoneer S a square, SUV side profile. You only see the massive gap between that raked rear glass and the spoiler from certain angles.
But we saw nothing at the rear that definitely said Jeep. In fact, coming up to a black SUV ahead at a stoplight, we pegged it as either a Kia or the new Honda Prologue—until we realized it was another Wagoneer S.
That’s not great brand ID.
Inside the electric Wagoneer
Inside, it’s the same story. The materials, contrast stitching, and multiple displays say “premium SUV,” but it’s not clear to us they really say “Jeep.” Buyers will be the judge of that. One small touch of butch was a starburst pattern on the matte black plastic that now seems to be supplanting the hackneyed shiny piano-black trim in car interiors.
Those displays include a 12.3-inch instrument cluster, a 12.3-inch center touchscreen display, a 10-inch head-up display for the driver, a 10.3-inch touchscreen at the right of the dash for the front passenger, and a final 10.3-inch display for the HVAC controls. The control and infotainment software worked fine, though it seemed slow to load once in a while.
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The 100.5-kwh (gross capacity) battery uses nickel-manganese-cobalt cells imported by Samsung SDI until a new Stellantis-Samsung joint-venture cell plant in Kokomo, Indiana, comes online early in 2027. The Wagoneer S pack uses 400-volt architecture and doesn’t have the ability to charge at 800 volts as do most Hyundai and Kia EVs. Level 2 charging time from 5-80% is quoted at almost seven hours, and it can fast-charge from 20-80% in 23 minutes.
The headline range rating for the Wagoneer S is 303 miles, and our test vehicle rode on the Falken tires that gave that higher rating. We didn’t drive a Wagoneer S on the Pirellis that, as the EPA site shows, busts the rating down more than 10 percent—to 270 miles. The test car, however, started off showing just 258 miles at 95% battery capacity. It likely reflected aggressive driving before we received it.
On the road: heavy, quick, and a bit unfinished
Behind the wheel and on the road, a curb weight approaching 3 tons (5,667 pounds) was evident, but we found the power generous and fully suitable for short bursts of fast acceleration on uphill on-ramps. The Wagoneer S is predominantly rear-wheel drive, with the “Automatic” driving mode biased 40:60 front to rear. The “Sport” mode ups that to 20:80 to the rear.
We started our drive in “Eco” mode, which is 100% rear-wheel drive unless the front motor is required to maintain traction. Eco required more pedal effort to keep up with traffic, but likely would be suitable for many drivers. The low-speed pedestrian alert noise, by the way, is a pleasantly meditative hum.
Jeep’s regenerative braking wasn’t entirely to our liking: it was almost unnoticeable in the lower setting, but too abrupt in the high setting. For the record, maximum regen produces 0.2 to 0.3g, while the minimum is only 0.04 to 0.08g—a pretty wide range. Perhaps the brand’s drivetrain-software engineers can drive a selection of EVs from more experienced makers to feel how they round the edges of their algorithms.
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Both our test cars had slight judders during specific low-speed maneuvers. The first one was diagnosed as a malfunctioning front-axle disconnect, and we swapped into a second car halfway through. That one behaved flawlessly until the very end, when reversing produced a minor judder. We didn’t hear the resolution on that one.
Jeep aims to sell a luxury EV to its core buyers
Finally, the company intends to target buyers of domestic EVs in the same segment. Its Wagoneer full-size SUV (the gasoline one) has drawn buyers from Ford and GM competitors, so Jeep feels it can poach some Chevrolet Blazer EV or Cadillac Lyriq or perhaps Tesla Model Y or Rivian R1S owners. It is uncertain whether those now driving Audi, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz competitors will be attracted.
To win over Jeep-space buyers, execs strongly hinted they will add a production version of the Wagoneer S Trailhawk Concept it unveiled the same day as the production car. The Trailhawk rides on rugged 31.5-inch all-terrain tires, features a higher ground clearance, and adds a driver-selectable electronic rear-axle locker and a new Rock driving mode.
The electric Wagoneer S is built on the STLA Large unibody “multi-energy” platform that also underpins the electric Charger Daytona. We already know the Charger will be offered with a gasoline inline-6 powertrain along with its battery-electric Daytona version. Executives declined to speak about any future versions of the Wagoneer S—but whether or not the company sells suitable numbers of the electric Wagoneer S, a plug-in hybrid gasoline version appears likely in the lineup within a few years.
Meanwhile, the brand finally has a respectable battery-electric SUV with that range rating. Now all it has to do is sell it.
