Could The Jeep® Commander Be The Name Of Brazil’s Newest Three-Row SUV?

Jeep® Brazil shared a quick 19-second teaser video earlier today, of its upcoming Compass-based three-row SUV for the Brazilian and Indian marketplace which is codenamed ‘Project 598’. The video shows us a quick silhouette, which looks quite similar to other Jeep unibody-based vehicles. But the biggest news about the teaser is the name of the new vehicle. Showing us the letters ‘E’ and ‘R’, leads us to think that they will be calling this new vehicle the Commander.

For those who follow the Jeep brand outside North America, you might be familiar with the Chinese-exclusive Jeep Grand Commander three-row SUV. The Grand Commander (K8) is based on a stretched Cherokee (KL) architecture and offers both 5 or 7 passenger seating and built through a joint venture by Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (GAC) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) which is now Stellantis.

Upon its launch, the 5 passenger version including the 5 passenger plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version of the Grand Commander was dubbed just Commander. A nameplate the North American market is familiar with, which ran on the Grand Cherokee (WK) from 2006 to 2010. The North American Jeep Commander (XK) was the first-ever Jeep three-row SUV and continues to this day to be a Jeep that most Jeep diehards continue to love and overland.

This year, Jeep China did away with the Commander 5 passenger and 5 passenger PHEV nameplate in favor of adding the ‘Grand’ part to the title of the lower-level models.

So it appears that for the third time in 15 years, the ‘Commander’ nameplate will be used on a Jeep three-row vehicle. 

The all-new Jeep Commander platform codenamed (H1) in Brazil and (H6) in India, will be manufactured in both countries fulfilling the need for a three-row vehicle between the Compass and the Cherokee.

AutoCarIndia, shed some light on the upcoming powertrain for the Indian marketplace. It expects that the H6 will come with the same 2.0-liter Multijet turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine as the Compass. However, they believe that it might be upgraded to make around 200 horsepower because of the added weight. Currently, the 2.0-liter makes 173 horsepower under the hood of the 2021 Jeep Compass.

Our Brazilian friends at Auto Segredos, believe that the Brazilian model will also receive the 2.0-liter Multijet turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine, in addition to the Renegade’s 1.3-liter turbocharged ‘Firefly’ inline-four-cylinder gasoline engine. Both are believed to be paired with standard ZF-sourced 9-speed automatic transmissions.

The teaser comes a day before Jeep Brazil’s unveiling of the updated 2022 Jeep Compass is officially unveiled for the LATAM region. Brazil is currently the second best-selling country for the Jeep brand. Over the past 5 years, the Renegade has sold more than 300,000 units in Brazil alone.