Jeep Grand Cherokee May Get 420-HP Hurricane Power

The Jeep Grand Cherokee doesn’t exactly need saving. The current model is genuinely good, and the three-row Grand Cherokee L remains one of the more compelling family SUVs on the market. It combines a genuinely upscale cabin with real off-road capability. What the lineup could use, though, is a little more excitement at the top. That might be coming.

A new report claims Jeep is preparing to stuff its twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter Hurricane inline-six into the Grand Cherokee for the 2028 model year. If true, it could give Jeep exactly the engine it needs to create a more desirable (and almost certainly more expensive) version of its popular SUV. The information comes from MoparInsiders, which cites a well-placed source as well as a leaked document. Jeep hasn’t confirmed anything yet, so there’s still reason to treat this as a rumor for now.

Read: Jeep’s SRT Comeback Is Bringing A Two-Door Hemi Scrambler With It

According to the report, Jeep isn’t planning to use the hotter High Output Hurricane. Instead, the Grand Cherokee would reportedly receive the Standard Output version of the 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six. Using the Grand Wagoneer as a guide, that could mean around 420 hp (313 kW) and 468 lb-ft (634 Nm) of torque. That’s considerably more muscle than the Grand Cherokee’s current turbocharged four-cylinder and even comfortably eclipses the old 5.7-liter Hemi V8. More importantly, it’s easy to see where such an engine could fit within the lineup.

Automakers have spent years expanding the upper reaches of their model ranges with increasingly expensive and desirable trims. Buyers who want the nicest version of something are often willing to pay handsomely for it, and Jeep certainly isn’t unfamiliar with that strategy.

A Hurricane-powered Grand Cherokee could play directly into it. Jeep wouldn’t necessarily need to make the six-cylinder standard across the range. Offering it on a couple of upper trims could create some useful separation from the more affordable four-cylinder models while giving buyers another reason to climb the price ladder.

There’s also one major reason this rumor isn’t particularly difficult to believe. Jeep has already put a Hurricane six into a Grand Cherokee. Earlier this year, SRT revealed a Grand Cherokee development vehicle packing the High Output 3.0-liter Hurricane along with an experimental electric compressor called eBoost Air. That prototype was considerably more extreme than what’s reportedly headed for production, but it demonstrated that the engine fits.

Again, this is all just rumor for now, but it makes a Grand Wagoneer worth of sense. The Grand Cherokee already has most of the ingredients needed to compete at the expensive end of the midsize SUV market. Giving its nicest versions more than 400 horsepower could be the missing piece.