Jeep has officially joined the EV market with this SUV, is it a hit or miss? [Video]

Jeep is known for large, hardcore SUVs capable of travelling far off-road, but the brand’s first electric car – the 2025 Jeep Avenger – is far from that.

The Avenger is a pint-sized city SUV with a similar footprint to a Toyota Yaris Cross – and slightly larger than a five-door Suzuki Jimny – with front-wheel drive and a claimed range on a charge of close to 400km.

It arrived in European showrooms 18 months ago, but is only now reaching local roads as Jeep Australia had to convince head office the car was right for our market – followed by time needed to engineer it to meet Australian motor-vehicle regulations.

Has it been worth the wait? Drive was invited to northern NSW for a first drive of the Avenger on local roads, after sampling it in Italy earlier this year.

The Avenger was initially scheduled to arrive priced from $53,990 plus on-road costs, but pre-launch cuts of $3000 …