This is our first look inside the high-luxury Jeep Wagoneer S EV. The photos show a vehicle high on luxury and sleeker than anything else from the brand. But it’s also a model that’s confusing.
Wagoneer S Gets All the Screens
Nothing is confusing about the cabin. The first Wagoneer S cabin photos show loads of leather along with body color matching contrast stitching to help make the vehicle feel more luxurious.
Wagoneer S will be loaded with tech, too. Not just from the all-electric driveline, which promises to deliver up to 600 horsepower and 0-60 times in the 3-second range, but also throughout the cabin.
The Wagoneer S will have up to four big screens up front. The driver sits behind a digital dashboard display, and there is a large center screen. There’s another screen below the main one that lets the driver or front passenger adjust the climate control settings, and then there’s the fourth one.
A fourth screen is not new; we’ve already seen it in the Wagoneer and Grand Cherokee. The extra display lets the passenger control the infotainment or run the maps. It also lets them watch streaming video on the go, with a filter so the driver can’t see it.
Expect to find even more screens in the rear seats. They’ll run the climate control for your passengers. They might even show TV like the front one. Those rear-seat passengers will sit under glass because a two-pane panoramic roof is standard.
McIntosh Audio, Boy Racer Rear Wing
The LED accent lighting that follows the trim that bisects the dual-level dashboard is shown in 4xe blue. But it will let you pick and choose from different colors.
The Wagoneer S will also offer an audio system from high-end stereo company McIntosh, with its signature logos and on-screen level meters. We’ve seen this audio system before, in the Grand Wagoneer and Grand Cherokee.
Part and parcel with going electric, this Jeep will have more aerodynamic devices than any production Jeep that has come before it. The new photos show a huge wing on the top of the hatch that works with a lower tailgate lip spoiler. We’re expecting to hear about more goings-on in the nose, too, as production nears.
Why Is This Wagoneer a Jeep?
None of those things are confusing, of course. They’re exactly what you might expect from a modern Jeep. What’s confusing is the name.
It’s strange that the model is called the Wagoneer, even with the S badge. Yes, that’s the name Jeep announced when it revealed the concept model in 2022, but the company said it didn’t plan on using it.
Even as recently as last summer, Jeep called the name a placeholder. Company officials said they were workshopping other names with customers and brand enthusiasts.
Evidently, those focus groups decided that the best name was one that Jeep was already using on two models that were completely different. This isn’t unheard of; look at the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, two vehicles that Jeep is most certainly hunting with its Wagoneer line.
What’s most puzzling, though, is that it’s branded as a Jeep, complete with a Jeep badge on the hatch. It’s confusing after the automaker has been careful and insistent that the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer models aren’t “Jeeps.”
The existing Wagoneer models wear no Jeep badges. They’re labeled simply as “Wagoneer” and “Grand Wagoneer” in marketing materials, where the other models get the Jeep name. Even on Jeep’s website, “Wagoneer by Jeep” is a separate category.
Will Jeep Wagoneer S Get Brand’s Luxury Perks?
Jeep had good reasons for making Wagoneer a brand within a brand. Asking for a six-figure price tag meant customers had higher expectations, and the brand planned to deliver.
Wagoneer Client Services came with VIP treatment such as included maintenance, trip interruption insurance, a special customer service hotline, and special access to exclusive events. Plus, Range Rover was already doing it, not using the Land Rover name on its extra-premium models.
The Jeep Wagoneer S, though, has Jeep written all over it, in the company’s marketing as well as on the bodywork. So there is a Wagoneer that’s not a Jeep, a Grand Wagoneer that’s not a Jeep, and a Wagoneer L (and Grand Wagoneer L) that isn’t a Jeep.
Arriving alongside those later this year will be the Wagoneer S, which isn’t related to any of the others, has no gas engine, and is a Jeep. It sounds like the company’s sales and marketing team will have their hands full when the Jeep Wagoneer S shows up at dealers later this year.
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