Meridian, its first D segment SUV from Jeep has been developed with over 82% local content, designed to participate in the growing Indian premium SUV space. With the addition of new Meridian, Jeep sales in India could cross over 25000 to 30000 units per annum.
The launch of D-SUV is part of a $250 million investment plan kicked off by Stellantis in India in 2021, which envisages bringing in four all new locally produced models in the country.
Roland Bouchara, CEO & MD, Stellantis India says, Jeep continues to operate with strong results in the segments it operates in. The Jeep Meridian is part of Jeep’s product offensive planned for India.
“We have 70% + market share in the premium C segment with Jeep Compass and a clear leadership in the premium lifestyle SUV segment with the Jeep Wrangler. My expectation is no different from the Jeep Meridian which is hugely anticipated to take a significant market share in the premium 3 row SUV segment,” added Bouchara.
After introducing the new Compass in 2021 and the locally produced Wrangler Jeep will now be rolling out Meridian in May, followed by locally produced Grand Cherokee, making India the only base in the world, outside of United States of America, where four models are locally produced, underlining the strategic importance of the location.
With the introduction of facelifted Compass, Jeep was able to pull back the monthly sales number for its first locally produced model to over 1000 from 700-800 last year.
Likely to be priced between Rs 30-45 lakh, locally produced Meridian will face limited competition from Toyota Fortuner alone with the segment vacated by the Ford Endeavour last year. Jeep may be looking at a similar monthly volume of Meridian as Compass.
According to people in the know, the Meridian Jeep is planning for a production of 15000 to 17000 units per annum. This could essentially double the sales volumes of the brand in the country.
Bouchara says, to underscore, a demonstration of the company’s commitment to the domestic market, the Jeep Meridian will feature up to 82% localisation, this may be amongst the highest local content for a car at that price point.
Jeep claims that Meridian has been specially designed, engineered, and tuned for Indian road conditions keeping in mind the refinement expected by customers in the segment.
“The duality represented by the all-new Jeep Meridian and its capability, has a potential to disrupt the premium SUV segment,” he added.
