In an interesting move, Jeep has confirmed it’s putting solar charging stations in the middle of nowhere!
With the recent announcement and launch of the hybrid Jeep Wrangler 4xe in the US, Jeep has upped the ante announcing it will be installing solar Wrangler charging stations well and truly off the beaten track. Despite many concerned about the range of electric vehicles – the Wrangler 4xe will travel just 40km on a single charge (but has a turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine to recharge the battery) – Jeep has an answer that’s more than a little out of left field. Simply build solar Wrangler charging stations and dot them around the countryside.
The new solar charging stations to be built by Jeep will be located on select trails in California and Utah, namely on the Rubicon Trail and in Moab. According to Road Show, Jim Morrison, head of Jeep in North America, dropped this pretty cool bit of news in an interview Thursday. To coincide with the launch of the plug-in hybrid Wrangler 4xe, Morrison confirmed that owners will be able to charge up at Rubicon Springs, the halfway point of the 22-mile Rubicon Trail, as well as on select trails in Moab, Utah. Now despite the 22-mile trail cutting it awfully close to the range of the new Jeep Wrangler 4xe, according to Jeep, the hybrid 4×4 has already completed the entire 22-mile journey in all-electric mode, without having to stop to recharge or switch to petrol-power.
The only real question we have (once we overlook the absurdity of the entire thing), is when will we see one halfway along the QAA line in the middle of the Simpson Desert!? At the end of the day, it’s a rather interesting bit of marketing and some pretty impressive billboards for the new Jeep Wrangler 4xe.
