New Jeeps will push the design limits

Jeep looks set to continue its bold new styling trends as it pushes the appeal of its brand.

Speaking at the launch of the 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee in Las Vegas this week, the American brand's head of design, Mark Allen, and global product planning chief, Colin Shaw, both expressed a desire in seeing how wide Jeep can expand as SUV sales continue to boom.

Asked if Jeep's heritage building military vehicles and the iconic Wrangler placed limits on the design of future models, Allen explained that he is looking to take the brand in a fresh direction - with one exception.

"It depends on the model. The next Wrangler is going to look like this Wrangler, it's tradition right down the line," Allen said. "Everything else - Grand Cherokee, [and] you saw what we did with the Cherokee, the new Compass, the little Renegade - we can go a bit further out. It's really model dependant."

Allen revealed he and his team are currently working on the next generation Grand Cherokee, which is reportedly due within the next two years; although he wouldn't comment on official timing.

"The next Grand Cherokee, what we're doing behind the scenes right now we're questioning everything about it," he admitted. "And I'm not afraid of that, it's fine. Although Jeep can be very traditional, you'll get left behind if you're just that guy standing there. So we'll probably be more progressive than a lot of people will be comfortable with. I'd rather that than trying to defend something we keep doing over and over."

Asked if that suggested the next Grand Cherokee would be a significant design step, rather than a simple evolution, Allen gave some hints at where the model is headed, design-wise.

"Grand Cherokee is highly successful for us and that can breed 'well, let's not screw it up, let's stay the course' or you can go on the other foot and go boldly and lead the way with it."

Shaw, who is responsible for managing Jeep's product plans, revealed that the brand will continue to experiment with new areas via limited edition models.

"Yeah, absolutely. It's a good factory for us to push new things," Shaw explained. "Some of them stick, like the [Blackhawk], I think every model has a Blackhawk package now. You will continue to see a proliferation of that as we continue to work out where we go."

The 2017 Grand Cherokee range has added the luxury focused Summit model as a full-time member of the line-up, following the positive reception to the short run Summit Platinum.

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