For the sake of transparency, let me say that I’m a closet Jeep fan. My mother owned a Jeep XJ Cherokee Limited when I was on my learner’s permit, and I bought another one in my 20s when I needed to commute for over an hour to my job in the city. They were never truly great cars, but I loved them all the same.

Jeep has evolved, though, from making simple, rugged off-road vehicles to more upmarket SUVs. Rather than just having to compete in its main market of the US against the likes of Chevrolet and Ford, the Jeep Grand Cherokee now exists in the same space as Volvo, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Range Rover.

This Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe is the top-of-the-line model, using a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine and eight-speed automatic transmission mated to a plug-in hybrid system.

Which means you can travel a claimed 52km on electric-only driving thanks to a 17.3kWh battery and dual electric motors.

Jeep says the Summit Reserve 4xe produces as much as 280kW and 637Nm – 70kW more power than the 3.6-litre V6 available in lesser variants, with almost double the torque.

While it doesn’t deliver as much electric driving as some other plug-in hybrid models on the market, the Jeep arguably has three major selling points: its handsome exterior styling, its gorgeous interior design, and – for some, perhaps – the fact that it looks nothing like a ‘green’ car to the average person on the street.

Though many people love to advertise their environmental credentials to the world by buying one car or another, the Grand Cherokee screams big, American luxury. But for the average Australian who travels approximately 40km a day to and from work, the Jeep can easily do that on battery power.

Jeep says the 4xe takes less than three hours to charge using a 7.4kW home wall box, but plugging the SUV into a standard wall socket with the provided power cable means charging takes around 10 hours.

The Grand Cherokee line-up starts at $77,950 before on-road costs, kicking off with the V6-powered Night Eagle. Further up the range is a Limited V6 or an Overland V6. Night Eagle and Limited are available in either five-seat or long-wheelbase seven-seat form, while the Overland is a five-seater only.

For those who don’t want a plug-in hybrid, the Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve is available in long-wheelbase with the V6 engine priced from $119,450.

Step up to the range-topping Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe plug-in hybrid – which switches back to the short-wheelbase five-seat body – and pricing starts from $129,950 before on-road costs.

For that money, you get Jeep’s Quadra-Trac II four-wheel-drive system with low-range, as well as air suspension, auto LED headlights with auto high beam, a 10.1-inch infotainment touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android auto, a 19-speaker McIntosh premium sound system, a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, 360-degree cameras, digital rear-view mirror, quilted Palermo leather seats in black or tan, 12-way power seats with memory, heated and ventilated front seats with massage feature, heated and ventilated rear seats, four-zone climate control, dual-pane panoramic sunroof, a black-painted roof, and 21-inch alloy wheels.

From there, you can add Premium paint for $1750, and the Advanced Tech Group option for $5500, which adds a head-up display, wireless smartphone charging, a night-vision camera, and a 10.25-inch infotainment screen ahead of the passenger – and fitted to the review car you see before you today.

The five-seat 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe comes in at 4914mm long, 2149mm wide, and 1801mm high, with a wheelbase of 2964mm.

That makes it longer than a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, but not as long as the current BMW X5, Porsche Cayenne, or Mercedes-Benz GLE SUV.

Inside, the cabin feels nice and spacious for the front occupants without feeling too cavernous, as can happen with larger SUVs. Both the driver and front passenger are enveloped by a sweeping centre console, which looks very premium – however, looks can deceive. More on that later.

The back seats provide plenty of space for second-row passengers, and while the rear luggage area is practical enough – at a claimed 1067 litres – the area isn’t as large as we were expecting.

This is partly because Jeep measures to the roof, which isn’t the typical way most car manufacturers calculate boot space. It’s good enough for most, but it’s worth inspecting the Grand Cherokee yourself if you’re carrying multiple prams or golf buggies, due to some asymmetrical shapes in the interior panels.

Jeep claims that number almost doubles to 2004L with the second row of seats folded.

There’s something about the Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve that is subtle, sophisticated, and unpretentious – yet it comes with a quiet presence that is hard to ignore. And that’s just the exterior. Once you step inside the cabin – particularly finished in this caramel tan with open-pore wood – it looks like a very special place to be.

A sweeping centre console trimmed in matching leather (or leather-look material) extends up to the dashboard. There are big, high-definition screens, beautifully sculpted surfaces, and heated and ventilated seats with quilted leather.

But despite being quite enamoured with the interior design – perfectly matching the discreet and handsome exterior – the build quality doesn’t quite live up to the vision.

While premium SUVs from the Europeans and Japanese typically provide the owner with soft-touch surfaces when clad in leather – the plushness conveying luxury at every point – the Grand Cherokee, unfortunately, feels as if the leather material was stuck directly to cheap, hollow plastics.

Frankly, it reminded me of my 1990s Jeep XJ Cherokee Limited – with hard plastics and that cheap, fake woodgrain glued to the dash.

The result is something that – while looking beautiful in the Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve – is prone to creaking and feels cheap to the touch. Honestly, it seems like those in charge of production at the company let down Jeep’s designers, who did a stellar job and held up their end of the deal.

The Grand Cherokee’s interior became a metaphor for the rest of the vehicle. Great on paper, but not quite executing the brief to the full extent it could – or should – have.

It’s clear from the outset that Jeep has spent some time on the infotainment in the new Grand Cherokee, with a large 10.1-inch touchscreen in the centre, as well as another touchscreen – 10.25-inch this time – that sits directly ahead of the front passenger and which can also control infotainment and navigation.

Other than playing with it for a few moments, we didn’t use the passenger screen – though I can imagine teenagers plugging in their phones and accessing streaming services. Kinda neat if you’re into that stuff.

The 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe comes with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, with wireless CarPlay being in use for much of our time with the car.

While it’s anything from new, it was always a pleasure jumping in the car, throwing my phone on the wireless charger, closing the little hatch over my phone (to ensure the lines of the console were uninterrupted), and having CarPlay connect after a few moments.

The native satellite navigation system seems to work well, and we had no major issues finding what we were looking for in the menus.

Anyone who has owned a range-topping Subaru from the 1990s may recognise the McIntosh-branded audio system, which provides a clear and loud stereo – including a subwoofer in the cargo area.

There’s also a smartphone app available, which allows the owner to locate the vehicle, lock and unlock it remotely, send-and-go navigation (rather than having to type an address in once you’re in the car), and notifications if the alarm is triggered.

The app also allows you to access information directly from your phone, such as fuel level, tyre pressures, and the vehicle’s odometer, among other features.

Buyers can rest easy, with the 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe being awarded a five-star safety rating in 2022 by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program – more commonly known as ANCAP.

Except for the Nissan Patrol – which doesn’t have an ANCAP rating – the Grand Cherokee’s competitors all carry a five-star rating. However, it’s the child occupant protection category where the Jeep shines – obtaining a score of 93 per cent, compared to 88 per cent each for the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series and Land Rover Defender.

In the vulnerable road user protection category, the Grand Cherokee equals the LandCruiser at 81 per cent but falls slightly short in adult occupant protection at 83 per cent – with the Defender recording 85 per cent and the LandCruiser getting 89 per cent.

The Jeep also shines in the safety assist category – which tests the effectiveness of technology fitted to help the driver prevent or minimise an accident – scoring 84 per cent against the Toyota’s 77 per cent and the Land Rover’s 76 per cent.

Arguably its closest competitors – the Range Rover Velar P400e and the Volvo XC90 Recharge – do not have any current ANCAP ratings.

The features that helped the Grand Cherokee obtain a healthy score in ANCAP’s safety assist category include lane-departure warning, lane-keep active assist, forward collision warning, driver fatigue warning, blind-spot sensors, parking sensors, 360-degree cameras, rear-seat occupant warning, low- and high-speed crash avoidance with braking and pedestrian/cyclist avoidance, front and rear cross-traffic alert, brake assist, and automatic parking assist.

Along with 10 airbags, the Jeep comes standard with ABS, traction and stability control, trailer anti-sway, hill descent, hill hold, and electronic brake force distribution.

There’s also an infrared camera, which can help identify pedestrians, cyclists, and animals in low light or fog. While remaining a really cool feature, there seemed to be a lag of around half a second for the image to appear on the dashboard. That may sound like nothing, but at highway speeds, the lag meant some of the scenery on the screen had already passed us by. However, at low speeds it worked well and even identified a kangaroo hiding in the grass beside the road.

Ownership costs are relatively predictable for the first five years, costing just $399 for each 12-month/12,000km service, excluding consumables and wear items not covered by warranty.

Speaking of which, the Grand Cherokee comes standard with a five-year/100,000km warranty, while the 17.3kWh lithium-ion battery for the hybrid system has its own eight-year/160,000km warranty.

When quoted by a leading insurer, the Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe returned a $3542 annual premium based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

Being the SUV is a plug-in hybrid, you can connect your Grand Cherokee 4xe to a wall plug and it will recharge the battery from zero to 100 per cent in less than 10 hours – with Jeep claiming an electric-only driving range of 52km.

This means – for the average Australian – you can plug in your car when you get home from work at night, have it fully charged by the time you head off in the morning, and can drive to and from work on pure battery power. But you still have the option of heading to the bush on the weekend on petrol power and without any electric range anxiety.

However, we couldn’t quite squeeze out the full 52km from the battery. It seems theoretically possible to us with the gentlest driving inputs, but we could only get between 40 to 45km from a charge when driving like a real human in ‘Electric’ mode before the turbocharged 2.0-litre engine kicked into life.

Meanwhile, the Range Rover Velar P400e claims an electric driving range of 53km from its 19.2kWh battery. But both the Jeep and the Rangie fall well short of the electric driving range of the Volvo XC90 Recharge, offering a claimed 92km from its 18.8kWh battery pack.

Fuel economy is officially quoted at 3.2 litres per 100 kilometres of driving – though this includes the 52km of battery driving, so you can expect petrol consumption to be much higher once you use up all of your stored electricity.

Another option to keep fuel economy low is to switch to ‘Hybrid’ mode, which turns the Jeep into a traditional hybrid – more like something from Toyota. This combines the petrol engine and the electric motor to ensure as little fuel is being used while conserving as much battery as possible for as long as possible, offering maximum efficiency and performance.

The ‘E-Save’ mode allows you to keep the electric charge to be used later – so you can use petrol on the freeway, where it’ll sip the least fuel, while conserving the battery until you hit the city, for example. The mode can also charge the battery from the petrol engine up to 80 per cent battery, if required.

We found ourselves plugging in the 4xe overnight and driving it on electric power when heading down to the local shops for errands. The ‘Hybrid’ mode was typically engaged on longer commutes to keep fuel consumption low.

But when the battery is depleted, the 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine works hard to move all 2536kg down the road, and at the end of our time with the Jeep, we averaged 8.4L/100km. Not bad for a large premium SUV, but not exceptional for those expecting the advertised 3.2L/100km.

While our result was about half the real-world consumption from the V8-powered Nissan Patrol, the twin-turbo diesel V6 Toyota LandCruiser claims 8.9L/100km – though a recent review came back with 10.5L/100km. Compare those figures to the Land Rover Defender 110 X-Dynamic D300, which claims 7.6L/100km and returned 11.2L/100km in real-world conditions.

Behind the wheel, the Jeep is relatively easy to manage around shopping centres and car parks, despite its obvious size. It’s big without being huge, and in electric mode, it’s relaxing enough for a premium SUV.

But when the petrol engine is doing its thing, it’s working hard to get all that mass moving – particularly when the electric motor isn’t there to deliver a healthy dose of torque. Ensure that the battery is charged, though, and the Hybrid mode seemed to offer the best driving experience around town, keeping fuel use to a minimum but easily getting the car to speed with the thrust of the e-motor.

While weighing more than 2500kg, it’s not the heaviest car in its segment, but for some reason, it doesn’t mask it as well as others can – and I suspect that comes down to packaging and weight distribution. After all, the Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe is carrying a battery pack, electric motor, engine, and gearbox, along with a heap of tech and leather packed into what is a large body.

Then there’s the ride. The suspension comes across as being a little undercooked at times, with the damping sometimes struggling to keep up with potholes and ruts when hitting them at speed. The Grand Cherokee does come with Quadra-Lift air suspension, which can increase the height for off-road use, and lower it to improve aerodynamics when on the freeway. The compromise seemingly is that it’s oftentimes just not quite as good as more traditional springs and shocks when the road gets rough.

Of course, the benefit of the Quadra-Lift system is there’s more than four inches of travel available from the air suspension, which helps passengers get in and out when parked, while also making the car significantly more capable when four-wheel driving.

Travelling long distances across the state was made easier with the ‘active driving assist’, which combines radar cruise control and lane-keep assist. On tighter bends in the country, it would sometimes disengage, but most of the time, it was a welcome relief just to sit back and let the Jeep follow the white line to the horizon. Only when we were driving directly into a low summer sun did the system have trouble.

The sound deadening was quite decent, as was the satisfying ‘thunk’ of the thick, heavy doors – adding to the cocooned, wide-chested, up-market feeling of the Grand Cherokee.

For those wanting to hit the road with a trailer or caravan hooked up, the 2536kg plug-in hybrid Grand Cherokee is rated to tow up to 2722kg braked – or up to 750kg unbraked – with a maximum towball load of 272kg and a GVM (gross vehicle mass) of 3110kg.

All of this means if you tow a large and heavy caravan using the maximum tow ball weight, you’ll only have 302kg for passengers and their luggage.

Compare that to the Volvo XC90 Recharge – a large premium SUV with a plug-in hybrid powertrain – which has a braked tow rating of 2350kg, unbraked of 750kg, a tare weight of 2310kg and a GVM of 2950kg.

Similarly, the Range Rover Velar P400e – another large, plug-in hybrid luxury SUV – has a braked towing capacity of 2000kg, 750kg unbraked, but with a much higher GVM of 4720kg.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe isn’t perfect, and I found myself being a little more nitpicky than usual – because I am a closet Jeep fan, but also because of the price.

While there are plenty of more expensive cars on the market, any vehicle at almost $130,000 before on-road costs demands a high level of quality and attention, and this SUV just fell short in a few key areas.

For that money, there are better plug-in hybrids, better fully-electric cars, more powerful petrol cars, and better luxury SUVs. But for those who have a long list of very specific boxes to check, few cars can do all of it and match the Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe.

For those buyers wanting a large, luxury SUV with the ability to commute on battery power – but without the edgy, ultra-modern, and sometimes bizarre designs of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or Audi – then the Jeep is a worthy option.

And if you have friends on both sides of the climate ‘debate’ (for want of a better word) with strong opinions, you can tell one group you drive a big ol’ Jeep SUV with a turbocharger and swathes of leather, while telling the other group you drive a plug-in hybrid that you charge at home. In other words, if you’re a Wall Street type who works in ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance), this is your new car.

But while it isn’t perfect, there is absolutely a place for the 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe in the world – and some buyers will find it fits their requirements perfectly.

If you’re in the market for a Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe, then you really have to compare it against the Ranger Rover Velar P400e and the Volvo XC90 Recharge – both of which are the closest in size to the Jeep while also being plug-in hybrids.

According to Jeep Australia, at the time of writing, there is plenty of stock of the Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe in the country, meaning there’s no wait time for those needing a new car quickly (depending on options and other factors, and subject to change).

The next step on the purchase journey is to check the Jeep website to build your perfect Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve 4xe. You can also find Jeep Grand Cherokees for sale at Drive.com.au/cars-for-sale.

We strongly recommend taking a test drive at a dealership before committing because personal needs and tastes can differ. Find your nearest Jeep dealer via this link. We’d also recommend test-driving the Volvo XC90 Recharge because it is popular with consumers and is a good benchmark.

If you want to stay updated with everything that’s happened across the Jeep range since our review, you’ll find all the latest news here.