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2015 Jeep Cherokee finds a bit more fuel mileage thanks to stop/start and aero tweaks

Just a year after it burst onto the scene, Jeep has already made a pretty substantial addition to its V6-powered Cherokee, which has proven to be an extremely popular seller so far for the brand, adding a new stop-start system for the midsize, off-road-ready CUV.
The addition of stop-start included a few aerodynamic tweaks to the Cherokee's polarizing body, resulting in a wallet-pleasing increase in fuel economy. According to the EPA, the front-drive, V6-powered Jeep will now return 21 miles per gallon in the city and 29 mpg on the highway, up from 19 city and 28 highway. Four-wheel-drive, V6-powered Cherokees, meanwhile, will now return 20 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway, up from 19 mpg in the city and 27 mpg.
With 271 horsepower, 239 pound-feet of torque and these newly enhanced figures, it's refreshing to see a larger, naturally aspirated engine that is still able to take the fight to today's crop of small-displacement, turbocharged four-cylinders.

Hybrid and Electric Jeeps, Fiats, and Alfa Romeos to be built in Poland

WARSAW - Fiat Chrysler will invest more than $200 million in its plant in Tychy in Poland, where new hybrid and electric Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo models will be built, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin said on Tuesday. The investment comes as a boost to emerging Europe's largest economy, which is hoping a switch to electric vehicles can help its auto sector catch up with regional rivals including the Czech Republic and Slovakia. "Modern, hybrid and electric cars of the Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo brands will start to leave the factory in Tychy in 2022," Gowin wrote on Twitter. Gowin said there could be further investment in the plant in future but gave no details. Fiat Chrysler, which is planning a $38 billion merger with French rival PSA to create the world's No.4 carmaker, said in a statement that early preparations for the expansion and modernization of the plant started in late 2020. The plant in Poland's industrial southern region of Silesia is one of the company's largest and currently employs around 2,500 people. Fiat Chrysler confirmed that new hybrid and electric Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo models would be built in Tychy. It said the aim was to start mass production of the first of the three new passenger car models for the group's brands in the second half of 2022. Under a 2018-2022 plan, FCA pledged to invest 9 billion euros in electrification as part of investment plans totaling 45 billion euros. (Reporting by Alan Charlish and Agnieszka Barteczko in Warsaw, Silvia Recchimuzzi in Gdansk; editing by Jason Neely and Susan Fenton) Auto News Government/Legal Green Plants/Manufacturing Alfa Romeo Fiat Jeep Green Automakers Electric Future Vehicles Hybrid

Coronavirus shakes up America's truck market: GM outselling Ford and Ram

FCA, Ford and General Motors joined the rest of the U.S. auto industry in taking heavy volume hits due to coronavirus-related shortages of both cars and customers. The saying goes that a rising tide lifts all boats; it stands to reason, then, that a falling one would have the opposite effect.  However, as we learned Thursday, the automotive market can behave in unpredictable ways. While the F-Series remained the best-selling nameplate in Q1, GM's full-size trucks are now outselling Ford's again for the first time in years, and with this upward thrust from the General, FCA's Ram was unceremoniously booted out of a hard-earned second place.  While late-March sales declines hit just about every major automaker in one way or another, the model-by-model results weren't nearly so uniform. And because the market tends to be a zero-sum game, for every winner, there generally has to be a loser.  In this case, that winner was GM, and its rise had to come at the expense of another automaker, in this case, Ford. F-Series sales dropped 13.1 percent in the first quarter of 2020, while sales of GM's full-sized Silverado and Sierra surged nearly 28% in the same period. FCA's Ram lineup managed a steady-as-she-goes 7% increase. All-in, GM finished the quarter with 197,743 full-size trucks sold to Ford's 186,562. Here's the full breakdown: Ford F-Series: 186,562  Chevrolet Silverado*: 144,734 Ram P/U: 128,805 GMC Sierra: 53,009 *includes 1,036 Medium Duty sales Things are a but murkier in the midsize segment, where the Chevy Colorado slipped 36% to just 21,430 units sold — just a few hundred better than the slow-selling Ford Ranger's Q1 numbers. The GMC Canyon experienced an almost identical slide, finishing the quarter with just 4,483 units sold. For perspective, Jeep sold more than 15,000 Gladiators and Toyota's midsize Tacoma slipped less than 8%, finishing the quarter with nearly 54,000 sales.  We suspect this discrepancy in full- and mid-size truck sales comes from shifting incentives. Ford, GM and FCA would like to keep selling bigger trucks because there's far more profit margin built into their list prices. Even with tens of thousands of dollars in manufacturer money on the hood, big trucks still make money.  Since these automakers report quarterly, we won't get another good look at these numbers until July, but if you thought that 2019 represented the new normal for U.S. auto sales, well, think again.