Jeep Avenger long-term test: report 5
The Avenger is Jeep's first electric SUV, but can it tempt a new wave of buyers to consider the iconic American brand? We're living with one to find out...
The car Jeep Avenger Summit Run by Mark Pearson, used cars editor
Why it’s here To see if the trendy Avenger can successfully forge new ground for Jeep and to see how it stacks up against its many polished electric SUV competitors
Needs to dispatch commuting, work and family life without any range anxiety issues and cope with a wide variety of everyday duties
Miles covered 3890 Price £39,600 Target price £39,017 Price as tested £42,125 Official range 244 miles Test range 163 miles
23 March – That petrol emotion
The results of our 2024 EV winter range test are out, and it’s not great news for the Jeep Avenger.
My actual car was used in the test, which involved driving a selection of electric cars on a track from fully charged until they ran out of juice. And it covered 163 miles before having to be loaded onto the tow truck – somewhat below the official figure of 244 miles, and also 20 miles short of the range it achieved in the summer version of this test.
Of the 12 cars included for the winter running, only the Lexus RZ turned out to have a shorter real-world range. But then the Avenger had the smallest battery of all the cars present (50.8kWh), so it’s perhaps not surprising that it finished near the bottom.
Until recently, the Avenger was available only in pure electric form, but there are now petrol and hybrid versions too. I had the chance to try the base 99bhp 1.2-litre petrol model recently and, once I’d remembered I couldn’t plug it in, I was very impressed.
True, it was initially a rather strange experience driving this car after spending so long in my electric Avenger – akin to meeting an old friend who’d had some work done: everything was sort of the same, but somehow oddly different. However, it has a lively engine that enhances the Avenger’s charms and, in the car I drove, a slick-shifting six-speed manual gearbox.
In addition, its price of £23,600 undercuts my EV’s by around £16,000 and, the price of electricity now being what it is, you’d have to rack up a substantial mileage in my car to claw that money back.
In fact, the Avenger was designed from the off to have a conventional engine up front. That means it can’t take advantage of the packaging possible in a purely electric car, so, while the Avenger is admirably short outside, it’s not quite as large in the interior as some of its EV rivals.
For example, I can't sit comfortably in the rear with the driver’s seat set up for me to drive it. There is plenty of head room back there, but rather a shortage of leg room. I am around six feet tall, so any lankier drivers and/or passengers might well have issues.
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