If you were looking to get your hands on a 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee with some off-road chops, your hopes were dashed earlier this year when Jeep dropped them from its lineup with the equally quiet discontinuation of its plug-in hybrid 4xe powertrain, which was standard on both. Well, they’re back – almost, anyway. Both the Overland and Trailhawk will return for the 2027 model year, which means Jeep should make good on its promise to revive the 4×4 variants before 2026 is out.
“Grand Cherokee is the cornerstone of the Jeep brand – one of the most recognized and trusted SUVs around the world,” said Bob Broderdorf, Jeep brand CEO. The company’s announcement said. “Grand Cherokee Trailhawk uniquely embodies this brand’s go-anywhere, do-anything ethos. It’s an SUV that handles your daily routine and is engineered to be a leader in the ability to confidently hold your own off-road, while remaining true to the brand’s authentic 4×4 DNA, with the famous Trail Rated badge.
Broderdorf continued, “For the Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, this model serves a unique purpose in the lineup: combining legitimate off-road capability and the premium, sophisticated features for which it has been known since its debut 25 years ago.” “There is no other SUV that offers the Overland as much value as the Jeep brand.”
Jeep’s announcement did not indicate any other major changes to the car for 2027. This makes sense from the imagination; The car was just updated for 2026, and the Overland and Trailhawk were simply back-burnered because they were previously only available with the 4xe hybrid. And while there are rumors to the contrary, that’s not the case with the i4 completely Replaced the base V6, at least not yet.
In fact, we contacted Jeep to clarify, and a company spokesperson confirmed that both the standard Grand Cherokee and the three-row Grand Cherokee L will still have the Pentastar V6 in their most basic trims (Laredo and Laredo X). Stepping up to the Laredo Altitude takes you up to the 2.0-liter Hurricane-4, with no V6 option available. The same applies for all trims above that.
The return of the Overland and Trailhawk models will once again give the Grand Cherokee some off-road credibility; After all, what’s the point of a Jeep if it’s not “trail-rated”? With the Overland, you get a two-speed transfer case (necessary for crawling), air suspension (with a maximum-clearance off-road setting), hill descent control, and what Jeep calls “semi-active” dampers (in other words, not a fully adaptive suspension).
The Trailhawk adds a rear electronic limited-slip differential (not a full-blown locker, mind you), some even fatter tires, an integrated “TrailCam” external camera mode with rear washer, and six high-strength steel skid plates.
The Overland and Trailhawk will return to production this fall; We should hear more about pricing when Jeep is ready to start shipping them into showrooms.
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