The Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk will return, and the brand is hinting at what matters most: its off-road capability.
Classically, the bread and butter of Jeep’s entire brand has centered around its most capable vehicle: the Wrangler. However, ‘Trail Rated’ capability is a trait that filtered down its SUV stack, including the last-generation Cherokee Trailhawk. The Trailhawk model is officially returning to the new Cherokee KM generation later this year, and Jeep just put out another teaser of what you can expect from this particular version.
“Yeah, it’s Trail Rated,” the statement begins. It goes on to tease the Cherokee Trailhawk’s engineering test procedure, saying “it’s been tested in ways only a Jeep-brand SUV is.” Namely, we can at least see it take on trails, rocks and sand the team is so confident this new Trailhawk can handle in the video below.
For the moment, Jeep is mum on any further technical details of what the 2027 Cherokee Trailhawk will be. At a glance, at least, this pre-production version looks to get a revised front fascia that includes recovery hooks, possibly marginally higher ground clearance…and that’s pretty much it. Otherwise, it looks like a run-of-the-mill Cherokee, which didn’t exactly impress when we took the Limited model off-road.
The Upland Concept from this year’s Easter Jeep Safari pretty much clued us in to how the Trailhawk is going to shake out. Really, it seems like the new model’s success is going to ride on how Jeep sets up the powertrain specific to the Trailhawk, as well as the all-wheel drive system. Again, the last Cherokee Trailhawk was a surprisingly capable off-roader in its own right. Jeep says it’s doing the same thing again here, but we still have to wait a little bit for the actual launch to know for sure.
One thing that is clear: We don’t have too much longer to wait to find out.
