The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a popular SUV that can drive well both on regular roads and rough terrain. People like it because it’s comfortable inside and has lots of modern features. It’s often talked about when new versions come out or when comparing SUVs.
Jeep Reset is a plan Jeep has to make its cars better and more modern. It includes new designs and ideas to make Jeep more exciting and friendly to the environment.
"Four by four" means a car that can send power to all four wheels, helping it drive better on rough or slippery roads. Here, it also means Jeep showed four new cars in four months.
The Eagle Summit was a small, simple car made a long time ago. The 'Summit' version was nicer inside with things like leather seats. People might talk about it when remembering older cars.
A turbo engine has a device called a turbocharger that pushes extra air into the engine, helping it make more power. This means the car can go faster and sometimes use less gas.
The Lamborghini Huracan is a very fast and fancy sports car that looks amazing and is built for speed. Usually, it has a big engine with many cylinders, so mentioning a small four-cylinder engine is surprising. People talk about it because it’s a dream car for many.
The Chevrolet Malibu is a medium-sized car that’s good for everyday driving and is very comfortable inside. It’s not made to be very fast or sporty, but it’s a reliable car for families or people who drive a lot.
Air suspension is a system in some cars that uses air-filled bags instead of regular springs. This helps the car ride more smoothly and can change how high the car sits.
20-inch wheels mean the round metal parts your tires sit on are 20 inches wide across. Bigger wheels can look nicer and change how the car feels to drive.
The Jeep Wrangler is a tough SUV that’s great for driving on rough paths and trails. Many people like it because you can change how it looks and works. It’s often talked about when people discuss how much it costs or special offers.
The Jeep Rubicon is a version of the Jeep that is really good for driving off-road, like on rough trails or dirt roads. It has special parts that help it handle tough terrain better.
The Dodge Charger is a big car that’s known for being fast and strong. It comes in different versions, including one that uses electricity instead of gas. People talk about it because it mixes old muscle car style with new technology.
The Jeep Recon is a new electric SUV that’s made for driving on rough trails without using gas. It’s very powerful and shows how Jeep is making electric cars that can go off-road. People talk about it because it’s a new kind of Jeep.
LIVE
Hello. How are you Mauricio? I'm doing great. So this is going to be a little different
because we are both from Mexico, right? You're from Mexico. Yeah. So we could be doing this
in Spanish, but I mean, we can speak English. So and I think, I mean, you're head of the
brand globally. So I guess that's your first language that you speak with when you're working
in English now. Yeah, we normally always work in English, yes. And you are in Detroit?
We're in Detroit, Michigan. Yes. So we're here for a double test ride, the new Cherokee and the
new Grand Cherokee. But I also been hearing a lot about the Jeep Reset and not only the name,
the concept and you're going to explain all that, but there's a lot behind it. It's not just like
a marketing thing or like a little phrase. I mean, there's a lot of substance under it.
Can you start explaining what it is? Yeah, for sure. First of all, thank you very much
for the opportunity. We're very excited to be here. To your point, presenting two brand new cars
or one completely brand new, the other one, a very important MCA, which is the Cherokee and the
Grand Cherokee. Back in Q4 of last year, we announced something that we call four by four.
It was called four by four for obvious reasons. We're a Jeep, but playing with that on the concept
of revealing four vehicles in four months. And that's what we did. We started with Cherokee. We
presented Cherokee, remember that. In New York. That was an amazing event. We were in Brooklyn.
And you know what I like about that one? Sorry for the interruption. I always like when cars
that have history, when you guys bring the old cars, because then you can see the evolution.
And that was very revealing. I mean, visual. You can see the car from the, what, 74? 1974.
A lot of changes. The SJ on the Cherokee. Yes, and we had it parked over there. For sure. I mean,
the Cherokee, as we know, invented the modern SUV. We launched it in 1974 with the Cherokee
SJ. And the modern SUV and the first time that the word SUV was used was when we launched the
Cherokee XJ in 1984. So that was the first launch of the four that I was mentioning. The second one,
we did the wagon year, now the grand wagon year MCA. We actually changed. MCA stands for?
For mid-sized collection. Yeah, for sure. I apologize for that. And this MCA, this mid-sized
collection, does a lot of things for grand wagon year. First of all, if you remember when we brought
back the grand wagon year, we had a wagon year and a grand wagon year. And we had a series one,
two, three, and a grand wagon year series one, two, three. What we decided to do is take that out.
Grand wagon year is a Jeep. There's only one grand wagon year. And we utilize the names
of the trims that we use in all the other Jeeps. So just to simplify for the customer,
simplify for the dealers. So we have now the normal name from Jeep, a limited reserve,
a sawmill, etc. So no more series one, no more different, and only one. It can get confusing.
It can get confusing for sure. Completely new exterior. It's a beautiful car. I'm sure you
have seen it. Absolutely. And very proud of that vehicle. Then the next one was the Grand Cherokee
MCA, which is the one that we're sitting in right now. By the way, this trim, it's incredibly
luxurious. I mean, it's still also capable. It's still a Jeep. But you see all the details here,
all the stitching, all the leather, all the screens, the sunroof. Yeah, this is the top of the line.
And you heard it today in our presentations. One thing that Cherokee has, the Grand Cherokee, I'm
sorry, is that we compete in the entry level of the full-size SUV all the way to the luxury.
It's the only nameplate in the market that actually does that. So yes, right now we are in the top
of the line, the summit. So yes, the leather, all the appointments in the interior, the real wood,
et cetera. New exterior color called cappuccino. And this one, it's the cappuccino. So we play
copper for the material or for the metal. And then we with cappuccino, of course, the coffee.
So we're somewhere there in between. And as you saw, this one has a new beautiful front end
of a vehicle, a new grille, new headlamps. But not only that, in the interior, you have,
like you can see right here, this new 12.3 inch radio. You connect platform, which is amazing.
Then you connect five, all new, you connect five. And the most important thing in this vehicle,
a brand new engine. So this is a four-cylinder turbo engine. It's our Huracan 4 that delivers
324 horsepower, while still giving a great improvement in fuel economy of 20% versus our
Panistar that there was. I just drove it here in the Canyons in Malibu. This is not a sports car,
for sure. It's a big family SUV in this case. No, this is the two-row. The two-row,
there's a three-row. I drove the three-row. I thought both. And actually, it's amazing that
engine, like the power it delivers, the air suspension in it and everything, the handling.
It's amazing for this size of vehicle. So like people who are still thinking, you know, I want
my B6 or my B8, these technologies really, really revolutionary, right? Yes, absolutely it is.
So it delivers 10% more horsepower and 20% more fuel economy. So it's a great achievement from
our engineers and absolute win. And then the four-vehicle of that four-by-four, it's our Huracan,
which is our first trail-rated electric vehicle. 650 horsepower, 3.5s here to 60.
So obviously an amazing achievement. We're very excited. We'll have an event similar to this in
which you guys will be able to drive it. It'll be great. The presentation at the LARO show was
also amazing. Congratulations to your marketing team. Thank you. They did a great, great event,
presenting all the different driving modes, actually. Snow, sand, water. I remember I put
my iPhone under water and people were like, are you crazy? And it worked out well. So that was
really great. But then on top of the four-by-four, you added the G-brace. And that caught my attention
because the presentation for this car, for example, I heard like, this is $5,000 less than, I mean,
how can you do that? So let me walk you through that. And that is why we're so excited, right?
The G-brace set is something that we did even before these four vehicles came to market.
So as we said before, very proud about our past. Very excited about our present time
and with the G-brace set. I'll walk you through that. And of course, very excited about the future
with all this brought coming in. So going on the G-brace set, what we did is we went back
to the basics of the brand, understand our product plan, understand our walks between
trims, understand that, of course, our customers want all this Jeep content that makes a Jeep a Jeep.
Like for instance, having a 20-inch wheels on a Grand Cherokee Limited. In the past,
we used to charge, now it's no cost. We grabbed this car to your point, the Summit, and we took it
down $3,000. In the case of a Wrangler, of course, every customer that buys a Wrangler
was Alter Entire. So Alter Entire is no cost. LED headlamps, no cost. So we won everything
across the whole lineup, and we did one of three things. We added, we had the value everywhere,
but in one of three ways. We'd reduce our base MSRP's, we'd reduce our option MSRP's,
or we just added content to the vehicle. And it's that content that the customer really looks for.
For instance, talking again about Wrangler and Gladiator, our Sky One Touch, so to open the
roof. Kind of convertible almost. Exactly. We used to charge $4,000 for that. We'd reduce
it to $2,995, all the way to $750 on a Rubicon. So it's massive decreases in price.
So I'm going to talk from the point of view of the former consumer. Someone who bought it
like two years ago, what happened? What inspired all this? I mean, because everything else in life
is going more expensive. So how are you able to achieve all these things? So believe me, it was
not easy within our own organization, but our leadership understands a complete shift
in mentality of the customers at the center of absolutely everything we do. So what is our
customer looking for? Don't make it hard for them to get it. That is a mentality that we have.
So what makes it Jeep by Jeep, which is all these attributes that I'm just talking about,
everybody wants bigger wheels, everybody wants more fun, everybody wants more off-road capability,
better tops, etc, etc, make it easy for the customer to have it. That was the direction
that we received and that's exactly what we did in a very dramatic way as you described.
And the cars are fantastic. The Cherokee, I mean, we just drove that shares the platform
with the Recon, the electric one, the Dodge, the Charger, which is part of the Stalantis group,
and the Wagner S, the electric one. So for people who are still, I mean, not a few people,
everybody is talking about in the industry, electrification, electrification, I guess you
guys adjust the tool like everybody else. So what you're still believing that technology and you're
offering different options, for example, the Cherokee now is the first hybrid in the U.S.
So you have different options for everybody. Correct. So that's another huge shift in philosophy
for Stalantis and we call it freedom of choice. And that's exactly what you're describing. Same
platform, is this still a large, those four vehicles that you mentioned, but completely
different animals, right? So you have a charger that you can get as an
electric vehicle or a car of the year. You got my board on that. There you go. So that's a car of
the year. Obviously a muscle car. In the same platform, you have a wagon in your S, which of
course is, it's a, I will call it a sport SUV, also with 600 plus horsepower. And then you have a
Recon that it's a completely, it's not going to be fun. I mean, electric cars in the off road
are incredible for people who have not experienced huge difference. Exactly. And now with Cherokee,
hidden exactly. And as you know, the largest segment in the U.S., three million units,
which is a midsize UV. If you use all North America's 3.5 million units. And when we came
up with that car was in our mind is how do you make the perfect car that complies with every
requirement of every customer in that midsize UV set. So we made it larger. We made it more
comfortable, better riding, better cargo capacity, 37 miles per gallon, 500 miles on a tank of gas.
So everything that everybody's looking for in that particular segment. So there's a big saying in
the automotive industry that like the company does as the product is good. So it seems like you have
a lot of good product, current and new and coming. So I mean, that company is in good hands with you
too. Because I mean, it seems like things are changing in a very dramatic way and it looks very
exciting. Absolutely changing. We have momentum behind us. And it's exactly what you just mentioned.
Everything is around the product. And the product is all based on what the customers are asking us
to do. So you were just following instructions and the boss here is the customer. So that's where I
go. So let's go back to the beginning of this recording. We're both from Mexico and I always say
recent years that the automotive industry is pretty much almost the only sector that brings
good news out of Mexico. Unfortunately, there's a lot of things going on that are not that good.
But you're an example of that. And I always say as long as the companies keep investing in Mexico
and developing and building plans and needing people like you, because I mean, tell us just
briefly about your story. How did you made it from Mexico all the way to be global head of work?
Yeah. So I was born and raised in Mexico City. I spent the first 29 years of my life in Mexico.
I actually started my career with at that time, Daimler Chrysler in Mexico City. I worked over
there for five years. Always in planning, production or what was your first? Well, no,
I'm actually a mechanical engineer. So I started working in the engineering team in Mexico and I
moved to the US working in our supply chain organization. So I spent a couple years over
there and then somehow I moved my career towards the commercial side and something that I'm very
proud of. I have been with Jeep around 14, 15 years here in the US. And yeah, very excited,
very proud about being part of something like Jeep brand with the legacy that it has with the values
of the brand. And right now, it's a huge moment for us with 85 years since Jeep was invented back
in 1941. So yeah, very, very proud of it, part of this. So you think you can make it another 15
years and make it to the Centennial? Exactly. That's a target for sure. That would be fun,
hopefully. And proud of you because again, we need more news like you, more people like you
coming out from Mexico and showing that it's possible if you work hard, right? Absolutely.
Personally, with the brand. So thank you very much. Thank you.
That's it for today's AI Auto podcast with Javier Mota. Hope you enjoyed the ride as much as we did.
Tune in next time for more on how AI is steering the wheel of tomorrow's autos.
Drive safe, stay curious and catch you later.
About this episode
Mauricio López Ramos, global head of Jeep brand, shares insights on Jeep Reset, a strategic initiative focused on revitalizing Jeep's lineup with new models like the Cherokee and Grand Cherokee. He highlights the brand's heritage, product simplification, and improved value through added features and price reductions. The discussion covers Jeep's approach to electrification, customer-centric design, and the balance between capability and luxury. Mauricio also reflects on his career journey from Mexico to leading Jeep globally, emphasizing the importance of innovation and customer focus in the brand's future.
In this episode we test drive the 2026 Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee and sit down with Mauricio López Ramos, Global VP of Sales Operations at Jeep, who explains Jeep Reset—a back-to-basics strategy focused on discipline, leadership, and long-term brand value—and why strong leadership is critical for Jeep’s future in global markets, including Mexico.
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