Jeep Grand Cherokee Overlander Concept Slated for Production?

Mar. 20, 2017 By Josh Burns, Photos by Glenn Paulina

If the Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland Concept looks familiar it should. This diesel-powered Grand Cherokee was unveiled by the Jeep team at the 2015 Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, but what’s interesting is that it was spotted recently leaving Jeep’s Auburn Hills HQ and hitting public roads.

The Overlander concept looks similar to the Jeep we drove a few years ago, as it’s still sporting Sage Green paint, yellow-tinted lighting on the restyled front fascia with a 9000-pound winch hidden in the front bumper, “limb riser” cables that span from the hood to the Overlander’s rooftop tent, full-width LED light bar and more.

Check out our video of the Overlander Concept from Moab below:

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What makes seeing the concept so unique, other than it hitting public roads, is the manufacturers’ “M” plate instead of the original's standard Michigan license plate. Usually, these concepts vehicles are one-offs and Jeep doesn’t build more than one of them, but did Jeep build more of the Overlander or is this the original concept reregistered on an FCA manufacturer plate?

Why does this all matter? Well, it begs the question: is this just a one-off drive or is Jeep considering building this unit for production. As the current WK2 fourth-generation Grand Cherokee nears the end of its cycle, it would be pretty cool to bookend the Grand Cherokee with an Overlander and the Hellcat-powered Grand Cherokee SRT option before the next-generation arrives in the 2020 model year. We’ll see, and maybe we’ll have a better idea when we get out to this year’s Easter Jeep Safari the middle of next month.