Jeep Just Retired the Grand Cherokee’s V8 for an Engine Nobody Saw Coming

3v image via Shutterstock
3v image via Shutterstock

Jeep just quietly killed the engine option Grand Cherokee fans have loved for two decades.

A twin-turbo inline-six is stepping in to take the V8's place.

The horsepower number attached to it is going to surprise a lot of Jeep loyalists.

The Hurricane Six Is Replacing a V8 Legacy

The 5.7-liter HEMI V8 has been a Grand Cherokee staple for years, prized for its sound and its towing muscle.

Reports now point to Jeep dropping a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter Hurricane inline-six under the Grand Cherokee's hood for the 2028 model year.

This is the tamer, Standard Output tune of the Hurricane six, not the high-output version Jeep already runs in the Wagoneer and other models.

What 420 Horsepower Means for the Grand Cherokee

The Standard Output Hurricane is projected to make roughly 420 horsepower and 468 pound-feet of torque.

The retiring 5.7-liter HEMI V8 maxed out at 360 horsepower and 390 pound-feet.

That is a jump of 60 horsepower and nearly 80 pound-feet from a smaller, more efficient engine.

Jeep engineers already showed the concept works in the real world, rolling out a test vehicle at SRT Day equipped with the higher-output Hurricane and an experimental eBoost Air electric compressor to solve the packaging problems that kept a six-cylinder out of the Grand Cherokee's engine bay in the past.

Towing is the one open question.

The current V6 Grand Cherokee tops out around 6,000 pounds, well short of the V8's 7,200-pound rating, and it is not yet clear whether the more powerful Hurricane closes that gap.

Why Jeep Is Moving Away From the V8 at All

Emissions rules and fuel economy targets are the real reason the naturally aspirated V8 is fading across the entire truck and SUV market, not just at Jeep.

A smaller, turbocharged engine can meet those targets while still making big numbers on the dyno, which is exactly what the Hurricane platform was built to do.

Jeep has already leaned on the Hurricane six in other models, including the Wagoneer, where the high-output version pushes well past 500 horsepower and has won over buyers who assumed nothing could replace a V8's sound and shove.

The Grand Cherokee getting even the tamer Standard Output version signals Jeep thinks that formula works for its best-selling SUV too.

Ram Just Proved Buyers Still Want a V8

Jeep's corporate cousin is making this bet look riskier than it sounds.

Stellantis brought the Hemi V8 back for the 2026 Ram 1500 after cutting it, and buyers responded immediately: Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis said the truck took 10,000 Hemi orders in the first 24 hours after the announcement, and dealers report Hemi-equipped trucks selling in about five days on the lot.

Light-duty Ram 1500 sales climbed 10 percent year over year in the third quarter alone.

That demand is exactly why the Grand Cherokee move is a gamble: Stellantis has fresh proof that a real V8 still sells trucks, even as it bets the smaller Hurricane six can do the same job for its flagship SUV.

The Trade-Off Buyers Will Actually Feel

More horsepower and a smoother, more efficient turbocharged six is an easy sell on paper.

Whether Jeep buyers care is a different question, since a lot of Grand Cherokee owners bought the HEMI specifically for the V8 growl and the towing numbers, not the spec sheet.

Jeep has two years before the 2028 model year to settle the towing question and figure out whether "faster and smoother" is enough to replace "V8" in the brochure.

Either way, the era of the naturally aspirated Grand Cherokee V8 looks like it is ending, and the numbers say the replacement will not be a downgrade.

Sources:

  • "Jeep Grand Cherokee Getting More Power Than Its Old HEMI V8," Autoblog, September 24, 2026.
  • "The 2028 Jeep Grand Cherokee Could Bring Back a More Powerful Engine Option," TFLcar, September 2026.
  • "The Jeep Grand Cherokee Could Finally Get the Hurricane Inline-Six," Motor1, September 2026.
  • "Stellantis Reports Strong Demand for Hemi-Powered 2026 Ram 1500," Dealership Guy, October 7, 2025.

Start Commenting!

You may also like...