- Jeep appears to have accidentally leaked details on its new, reborn Cherokee SUV
- It will appear as a hybrid, getting up to 38 mpg
The all-new 2026 Jeep Cherokee will be available as a hybrid, achieving 38 mpg in combined city and highway driving. Jeep would rather no one know that yet, but departments within large companies can miscommunicate.
The Cherokee will be entirely new for 2026, returning to the Jeep lineup after a 3-year absence. A compact SUV, it will compete with the top-selling Toyota RAV4, the Honda CR-V, and the Chevrolet Equinox, among others.
Automakers usually roll out details on upcoming models slowly in a coordinated dance with the media. Jeep started that process recently, sending us a teaser photo showing the vehicle from a front angle. A month later, they released a second from the rear.
In the normal course of events, they’d slowly leak details, schedule a day to reveal the whole thing, and show it all to the media at the same time.
But yesterday, the Jeep consumer website revealed details about the car. They disappeared within a few hours, but not before much of the automotive press copied them down.
The brief reveal showed that the 2026 Cherokee will be sold as a hybrid, using a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine. As you’d expect, it will be all-wheel drive (AWD) only. Jeep didn’t reveal power figures, but a graphic showed a 3,500-pound towing capacity.
Trim levels include an off-road specialist Trailhawk model.
We should note that, since the information was apparently posted in error, it’s possible some of it will change. But it’s all plausible, and would make the Cherokee an appealing, off-road-oriented alternative to the class sales leaders. You know…what you want from a Jeep.
We expect to know more, officially, later this summer.
