The Jeep brand has seen skyrocketing sales growth over the past couple of years, as low gas prices and well-crafted vehicles like the new Cherokee have sent customers flooding into Jeep showrooms. But as much as Americans love SUVs, there’s one type of vehicle they love more, and that’s the tried-and-true pickup truck, and from the sounds of it, Jeep is ready to cash in on our love for trucks.
Automotive News reports that Fiat-Chrysler is planning to launch a Jeep Wrangler based pickup with the next-generation while keeping production in its historic home of Toledo, Ohio. This is a big win for both Jeep and truck fans, your writer among them.
FCA has been waffling on whether to keep Wrangler production in Toledo, with rumors even suggesting at one point that the original Jeep could be built in China. But the Wrangler will stay at the Toledo plant, which will give up production of the popular Cherokee to make room for the Wrangler pickup. The Cherokee is the second best-selling vehicle in the Jeep brand behind the Wrangler, and FCA expects that with the addition of a pickup model Wrangler sales could top 350,000 units once the redesigned model debuts.
The Jeep Comanche gave us our first taste of what a Jeep pickup could offer, and in 2005 the Jeep Gladiator Concept (pictured above) whetted our appetite for more. But then came the recession, the gas crunch, and a focus on more fuel-efficient vehicles. With that nonsense behind us though, a Wrangler pickup is back in the plans. With America’s favorite type of vehicle finally being added to its already-versatile lineup, is there anything that can stop the Jeep sales domination?