Is This Jeep's New Discovery Rival?

Jeep’s having a pretty good time at the moment. Its European sales are better than ever and it’s expanding its product range. Around the corner is a rebirth of the Grand Wagoneer –arguably the first ever luxury family SUV – with the Range Rover namechecked as a rival.

This could be our first glimpse of it, too. It’s the Jeep Yuntu concept, which has made an appearance at the Shanghai motor show. While not officially a preview of the Grand Wagoneer – due in the next year or so – it certainly looks like a large, posh SUV in the same mould.

Here, there’s seating for six, all the better for enjoying the Yuntu’s many, many infotainment screens and its smart wooden interior. It looks like a very nice place to be. A production version, be it the Grand Wagoneer or not, will almost certainly have seven seats. And no doubt conventional doors at the back, and a bit less wood…

While the exterior design sets it apart from Jeep’s current range, there are still classic design cues, chiefly its grille. The rest of it looks slicker and cleaner than other Jeeps, though. We like it.

More mystery lies beneath. A PHEV badge marks this out as a plug-in hybrid, but no technical details of its powertrain have been released. Jeep has already told us hybrid is coming, perhaps even for the Wrangler, as is autonomous driving tech. A production version of this Yuntu would be a sensible place to introduce both.

Whether the Grand Wagoneer comes to the UK or not remains to be seen. If it looks like this Yuntu concept, would you like it to? Or with the likes of the Land Rover Discovery, Audi Q7 and Volvo XC90, are there enough posh seven-seat SUVs already?

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