JEEP AVENGER

Good stuff

Useful as a city car, but fine beyond the ring-road too. Good efficiency, confident styling

Overview

The Avenger is a surprisingly small electric Jeep. How small? Fun fact: the only Jeep smaller than this was the original Willys. At 4.08m long, it’s more compact than Jeep's own petrol Renegade or almost all the little crossovers you might mention. As an electric Stellantis-brand machine, it's somewhat related to the battery-powered Peugeot e-2008, Opel Mokka Electric and DS 3 Crossback E-Tense, but as we'll see they can't match the Jeep's rough-ground chops.

The Looks

The Avenger is a blocky looking thing - and as Jeep’s design boss stated, boxy is the brand’s future - but it’s largely free of pointless aggression. At least in all respects other than the name. Like too many SUVs, it sounds like some shoot'em'up computer game. We won't mention a 1970s Hillman. The design wraps up lots of current and past Jeep cues but riffs them into something quite progressive. Part of what makes it a proper Jeep is the body protection. The lamps and painted sheetmetal are inset from the plastic all round the perimeter, so those cheap plastic parts really do have a sacrificial role against gentle scrapes.

This of course isn't handy only when you're greenlaning into the deep countryside for a spot of wild camping, but also excellent at fending off the biffs of urban manoeuvres. By the same token, short overhangs and decent ground clearance (a minimum of 200mm, and 230mm under the battery) mean strong off-road creds but also a particularly nonchalant attitude to speed bumps. Water fording is 230mm, which is half-way up your shins and would count as a pretty adventurous puddle on the road. Unsurprisingly everything we've said so far about the dimensions and design means it'll slot perfectly into urban life, and that of course is where its owners will mostly be.

Driving

Is Avenger just a feeble city runabout? Actually, no. The battery is 54kWh, the motor 156bhp; WLTP range tops out at 396 kms, depending on wheel size. You'll probably get more than 320 real-world. With those numbers underneath you, you'll be happy to burst out beyond the ring-road. And the Avenger copes. It's quick enough (0-100kmph takes 9 seconds), not unpleasant to steer, and it's quiet. In your Avenger, you get three modes. Well, six actually. Sport is the full 156bhp and 260Nm torque. 'Normal' shaves that back to 110bhp, while in 'Eco' you're contenting yourself with 81bhp, unless you mash the throttle past its far-end kick-point. Then you’ve got ‘Sand’, ‘Mud’ and ‘Snow’; no explanation needed there.

What that means is that more than in most cars, the Avenger feels and acts very differently in the various modes, which recalibrate the ESP, accelerator and steering weight. Maybe Eco should be relabelled 'In the wilderness miles from a charger, need to get back without being stranded among the bears'. The kerbweight is a light (for an EV) 1,536kg, so acceleration when you ask is lively-ish. Not that you’d tell from the 9-second 0-100kmph time. You'll probably use 'Normal' mode in suburban driving, as it makes gentle starts easier than in 'Sport': you’ll save the latter for faster country roads to make up for the lack of steering or brake feel. And anyway, drag matters more than weight at higher speeds. The Avenger gets itself to motorway pace without much trouble, aided by the smallness of its frontal area. The slowing-down department is equally well-developed: regen power at peak is up to 62bhp from lifting off in B mode, and more when you press the brake. Thereafter, the discs arrive progressively.

Despite the emphasis on off-road competence, the Avenger handles pretty neatly on the road. Yup, they lengthened the suspension travel versus an ordinary hatch, but there's plenty of damping control. So not much roll, you can lob it at a corner with surprising abandon and it stays neutral enough. The ride remains on the acceptable side of supple, but the 18s that come with the top-spec car are easily unsettled on rougher surfaces. We suspect the 16-inch alloys that are standard on the base Avenger will be far better, though we’ve yet to try them ourselves. Most importantly of all, it's quiet. We've got used to a clonky suspension from cars on this platform, but not here. The Avenger's tyres roll quietly as well, and the body feels rigid, so the experience is reassuringly refined and calm. We suspect much of that roll control comes not through stern anti-roll bars, which would harm off-roading, but transiently through the damping. Anyway, it means predictable cornering but a fair bit of lateral head-toss on straight bumpy roads. It also means the Avenger is very nicely secured against pitch and float.

Looks

Avenger started life as the shared platform of the Peugeot e-208, e-2008, DS 3, Opel Corsa Electric, and Mokka. But Jeep did a lot of extracurricular homework. It wanted shorter front and rear overhangs for better off-road work, so it redesigned the crash structures at the nose and tail, to be just as effective but more compact. That's an expensive job. It altered the inner wings for bigger-diameter tyres and more wheel travel. It raised the rear seat for extra legroom. It changed the glass. It widened the tailgate aperture for easier loading. Then Jeep grabbed the latest electrical hardware – all-new (not just modified) permanent-magnet motor, new battery cells, new inverter. Those bits have been cascaded to the other Stellantis cars. The on-road (and off-road) dynamics have a strongly different flavour too.

An all-wheel drive, 4xe-badged version of the Avenger is on its way, based on a concept previewed at the Paris motor show in 2022. The Avenger is a small car that uses it well. Around the front of the cabin there's 34 litres of storage, spread across door bins, the (actually quite pitiful) glovebox, centre console wells and that extremely useful shelf you can see beneath the yellow-bordered vent element in the image above. Standard screenage consists of a 10.25-inch colour touchscreen and seven-inch instrument display (which morphs into a 10.25in unit on mid- and top-spec cars). The main central one is snappy to operate and has good connected maps. But you’ll just use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (both standard), won’t you? The menus set-up is relatively inoffensive, and you can set up shortcuts for several common tasks; there’s a row of buttons for your climate control and a toggle below to switch between driving modes, anyway.

Forward, reverse, park and neutral are also but a button press away. Just be mindful of the magnetic, iPad cover-esque lid for the centre console storage: if you have a bag or satchel in there (which the outdoorsy marketing bumf insists you will), it means rolling up the cover… to obscure the drive selectors, oops. How best to describe built-quality? Robust, that’s the word we’re looking for. Even the top-spec car is awash with that nasty, scratchy plastic, though it’s mostly in areas you’ll never, ever touch. Unless it’s with a muddy boot or the fork of a mountain bike. And the seats seem to have been upholstered in rucksack leftovers. Neither is a big problem: it suits the Avenger’s rugged vibe just fine.

The front seats are spacious and comfortable, though if you’re on the taller side your left leg will get very familiar with the wall of the footwell. It’s snug, in other words. Headroom is more than adequate for six-footers, but will adults happily sit behind adults in the back seats? Not for very long. Legroom isn’t bad for the class, but copious it ain't. You’ll only get a child in the middle of the rear bench. The boot is 380 litres seats-up, 1,053 litres down. Dropped-seat measurements are somewhat trivial as it rather depends on front-seat position. Perhaps that's why Jeep measures it as 2,443… rubber ducks. Us neither.

Verdict

“A car designed to work reasonably well on moderate off-road trails ends up working really well in its precise opposite” Jeep has built an excellent city car. Like any decent EV the powertrain is silent and smooth, and it qualifies for various cheap parking and congestion-zone incentives. It's small and manoeuvrable and the boxy outline helps you judge the corners. The bash-resistant exterior and speedbump-happy suspension calm your nerves. That's not all, mind. It has OK range and quick-enough rapid charging, so its long-distance compass is perfectly tolerable. The cruising manners are fine, and it’s even fairly chuckable in corners. Thank the small size and long-travel suspension.

So enjoy the irony. A car designed to work reasonably well on moderate off-road trails, ends up working really well in its precise opposite. Not, of course, that Jeep didn't know that all along.