Our rental fleet received a couple of Wrangler 4Xe models over the summer, so they would be available for the big golf tournament here in town. I have been keeping an eye out for them to make sure they are plugged in before being turned over for rental. A lot of our plugin hybrids are left with empty batteries, which leads to some serious problems unless recharged. The 4Xe system in the Jeeps can run as a regular hybrid which keeps up a level of charge from the ICE motor, but when the batteries are really low, it should be plugged in.
The BMW hybrids are less than ideal. The the SUV models take forever to charge for a lackluster battery only range. The sedan models reach the full charge sooner but have a very paltry range of around 20 miles. They use the same ZF transmission that Jeep uses, but somehow Jeep makes it work much better. The BMW plugin sedans are new and have been properly charged, so seeing only 20 miles of battery range is pathetic. We have a Ford Escape PHEV model which had never been properly charged and constantly ran on empty batteries. That too only had a 20 mile range, but that's not what it started out with. A Wrangler Rubicon 4Xe doesn't have much of a longer battery range than the BMW sedans, but the Rubicon has no aero or rolling resistance enhancements. That said, the Jeeps charge in a fraction of the time. A Nissan Leaf full EV charges faster than the plugin BMW SUVs and has a 250 mile range. These are on all the same Level 2 charging stations we have at work.
Why am I bringing this up here on a Hemi thread? We have some of the new Prius models in our fleet. Those are just regular hybrids, not the plugin models. The reality is, the newer hybrids run much better than their conventional ICE powered contemporaries. The new Prius is much livelier than the 2024 Mustangs we just got in. The Mustangs are all four cylinder Ecoboost powered. The front looks like it was cropped off the latest Honda HRV, the dash could have come off Honda as well. When I say the new Prius is livelier, I am talking about stop and go drivability. The Mustang is probably faster, once it gets going. There is a lot of herky-jerky with that Ecoboost four.
The Prius Prime and Wrangler 4Xe both posted 97mph trap speeds in recent test reviews. These were production vehicles, not preproduction units. Both vehicles though significantly different, are plugin hybrids with four cylinder motors. For what they are, they are quick. Would a next generation Hemi survive with the current Hemi’s drivability? The hybrids under the CDJR brands were in development before the Stellantis creation, so I will use FCA as the genesis. FCA started out with a decimated engineering staff, but has recovered. A lot of effort went into electrification and it shows with mundane aspects of hybrid use such as battery range and time to fully charged. The original Fiat 500e was the best of the compliance cars, and lessons learned with it contributed greatly to the present generation 500e.
A decision was made not to continue with the Hemi hybrid pickups. The GM supplied transmission was way too expensive and the later mild hybrid system was better in both performance and economy. I will end my post with this. Things I don’t know are, how much of a generational leap is the new mild hybrid system and what the range extender is going to be in the EV Ram pickup.