Jeep Wrangler 4xe Rental Experience - from an R1T owner

[RivAW]

Prior to getting our R1T in 2022 we had considered buying an Wrangler 4xe. We never got a chance to drive one because they were so hard to find a year or so ago.

Fast forward to now.. Last week I was in the Bay Area and picked up a brand new 4xe as a rental car at SFO and had it for a week. We were driving up to Calistoga and all over Napa/Sonoma counties so we got a chance to put about 500mi on this new Jeep. After driving it for a week I have some thoughts...

1. The battery pack doesn't make any sense. Our hotel had a charger, so we were able to fully charge it every night, but you only get about 28mi of range. Most of our driving was 10-20mi each way, so unless you can charge at every stop, the battery doesn't do much.
2. We would seek out parking near chargers, which drove us nuts, and then we just decided to only charge it at night.
3. The battery gauge goes down fast. It was strange to take it to 0 on almost every drive.
4. The 4xe is a 4 cylinder gas engine, and combined we got about 27mpg. This is not worth the premium of the 4xe over a standard Wrangler. I'd rather drive the V6 and pay less than the up charge for the 4xe.
5. The charge port is Level 1 or 2 only. (That was interesting to find out) Takes 2.5hrs to fully charge from 0% on a Level 2 charger. 15 usable Kwh.
6. It kinda has one pedal, but regen is nowhere near as strong as the Rivian and the 4xe won't fully stop/hold. You must use the brakes. This was actually quite annoying when I just wanted to roll to a stop at a stop sign. The 4xe will use regen until you hit 5mph and then it releases.
7. If you want a Wranger, or Grand Cherokee for that matter, the 4xe just doesn't make much sense. It needs at least double the range to be really useful in some situations. You will be plugging this in at every stop unless you just want to drive around in a gas powered Jeep, and at that rate save your money and buy a gas powered Jeep.

Driving dynamics are not even comparable to the R1T. It drives like a typical wrangler, which isn't great once you get up to highway speeds.

With due respect, you simply didn’t bother to educate yourself about the jeep at all (or the difference between a PHEV and EV) before driving it with certain assumptions….its not an electric vehicle…:it just has a small electric motor that will “assist” with mileage via hybrid mode and/or offer (very) limited battery powered operation…

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[voxel]

3.0 mi/kwh is encouraging. Is that a mix of highway and non-highway?

70% highway.

You can drive up to 85mph on the RAV4 Prime before the engine kicks in. I have to say that the R4P is an engineering marvel and quick as a base Tesla Model 3 RWD. My 23 Sequoia was a POS but the Prime was impressive even though it had poor NVH (so does the R1S lol) and it's pretty much the only Toyota product I'd recommend. Ok, maybe the new Prius Prime also - which I test drove recently too.

 

[virgnia_rivian]

With due respect, you simply didn’t bother to educate yourself about the jeep at all (or the difference between a PHEV and EV) before driving it with certain assumptions….its not an electric vehicle…:it just has a small electric motor that will “assist” with mileage via hybrid mode and/or offer (very) limited battery powered operation…

You're drawing an uneducated conclusion on my assessment and I did plenty of research and studying the 4xe when I considered buying one. I actually thought the idea of having in-city, short commuting electric range would be great and gas for longer drives.

In reality, after driving one for a week and seeing how it performs, there are better ways to blow that money. I'm not bashing the Jeep. If I was buying a Rubicon today, I'd buy the V6, I wouldn't spend the money on the PEHV.

And if you haven't driven the 4xe, the one we had certainly didn't do much "assisting" and when that engine kicks on you know it. Everyone around you knows it.

 

[Marchin_MTB]

70% highway.

You can drive up to 85mph on the RAV4 Prime before the engine kicks in. I have to say that the R4P is an engineering marvel and quick as a base Tesla Model 3 RWD. My 23 Sequoia was a POS but the Prime was impressive even though it had poor NVH (so does the R1S lol) and it's pretty much the only Toyota product I'd recommend. Ok, maybe the new Prius Prime also - which I test drove recently too.

That’s impressive. My daily case is closer to 0% highway so I need to put the R4P back on the options list. Im looking for something that achieves at least 3mi/kWh to fit in our solar power budget. Glad you chimed in!

 

[Nine_One_Six_R1S]

I honestly find myself driving her jeep more than my R1T. It’s such a bad ass capable vehicle. Our Jeep has full fox suspension and is on 17” rims with 35in tires

What kind of clearance at the Diff pumpkins do you get?

I always wondered what equivalent setup a Jeep would require to match my R1S clearance.

It's always one of the 1st questions my jeep friends ask. I estimated a stock wrangler with 35's would be the equivalent to the R1S 14.9 " of clearance.

is this in the ballpark?

 

[DoubleTake]

What kind of clearance at the Diff pumpkins do you get?

I always wondered what equivalent setup a Jeep would require to match my R1S clearance.

It's always one of the 1st questions my jeep friends ask. I estimated a stock wrangler with 35's would be the equivalent to the R1S 14.9 " of clearance.

is this in the ballpark?

From the floor to the very bottom of rear diff it’s about 12 inches

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