4xE Rubicon - Scam?

1,938 Views | 42 Replies | Last: 46 sec ago by HollywoodBQ
Woods Ag
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AG
Flew in to Houston this weekend and rented a car where you can walk up and pick any car for the same price. They had a 4xE rubicon so me and my sons hopped in that one.

Battery is 0% but that's too be expected. Why would they charge it at the National. I charged it all nigh (14.5 hours) and this morning hopped in to go grab some coffee.

100% battery = 27 miles on all electric? Wtf is that? So, I get in Hybrid mode and I drive 17.6 miles round trip for my coffee. No flooring it or speeding. 6am, listening to a podcast, enjoying a quiet drive before the kids get up kind of ride.

I got back with 27% battery life left. It's definitely not an electric vehicle. Can it even be called a hybrid? For $62k, seriously wtf is this?
JamesPShelley
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Woods Ag said:

Flew in to Houston this weekend and rented a car where you can walk up and pick any car for the same price. They had a 4xE rubicon so me and my sons hopped in that one.

Battery is 0% but that's too be expected. Why would they charge it at the National. I charged it all nigh (14.5 hours) and this morning hopped in to go grab some coffee.

100% battery = 27 miles on all electric? Wtf is that? So, I get in Hybrid mode and I drive 17.6 miles round trip for my coffee. No flooring it or speeding. 6am, listening to a podcast, enjoying a quiet drive before the kids get up kind of ride.

I got back with 27% battery life left. It's definitely not an electric vehicle. Can it even be called a hybrid? For $62k, seriously wtf is this?
A POS. The price tag alone is a boner killer.

HollywoodBQ
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AG
I rented one about 3 months ago in Reno.

After charging overnight at the hotel, mine only showed 22 miles of range.

A 3 mile mountain climb in 4H where I ascended about 2,000 feet, took 15 miles of range.
Woods Ag
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AG
Idk how you would even make it to the trail with battery/hybrid ability left if I can't for 30 miles in hybrid mode. You'd be on all ICE by the time you get there.
GAC06
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AG
62k for a wrangler

lol
bam02
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AG
Eh that's how the plug-in hybrids all work, I believe. Most are 20-30 miles of electric range before ICE kicks in. I guess it makes plenty of sense for people with minimal daily driving needs.
JaceAG12
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It's not meant to be an electric vehicle it's a plug in hybrid.

If you drive in traffic with regenerative breaking to help charge the battery there are reports of people getting >40 real life MPG in them. That's pretty damn good for a box on wheels.

There are also numerous reports of all sorts of electrical/battery issues and woeful reliability to be expected from a stellantis product.
MaxPower
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This is why Stellantis is moving more towards the Ramcharger approach, which is the plan for the Wagoneer and by 2028 the Wrangler. I personally think it's gonna be a winner. Most hybrids right now are just bolt on approaches that don't do much except qualify for some poorly designed tax credit.
HollywoodBQ
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AG
Woods Ag said:

Idk how you would even make it to the trail with battery/hybrid ability left if I can't for 30 miles in hybrid mode. You'd be on all ICE by the time you get there.
There was a switch to the left of the steering wheel that let you choose between 3 modes - gas (Esave), electric or hybrid

I drove to the trailhead on gas.
HollywoodBQ
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AG
JaceAG12 said:

It's not meant to be an electric vehicle it's a plug in hybrid.

If you drive in traffic with regenerative breaking to help charge the battery there are reports of people getting >40 real life MPG in them. That's pretty damn good for a box on wheels.

There are also numerous reports of all sorts of electrical/battery issues and woeful reliability to be expected from a stellantis product.
in my experience, I got about 21 mpg driving around Reno in hybrid mode. Versus about 17 mpg in my V6 Rubicon.
steve00
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AG
It would seem that someone so unaware of how plugin hybrids work, what their value proposition is, and how the different drive modes function should probably avoid them as a rental.

Even if you accidentally picked one and were confused by it, perhaps a quick google search to educate yourself would be more productive than labeling it a scam.

The 4xe delivers on what it claims to be and provides value in the somewhat narrow use case that it is intended for.
GAC06
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AG
The use case is to be a terrible rental
steve00
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AG
I would never rent a plugin hybrid or a full electric car, and I have previously owned the first and currently own the second.

If I am renting a car it means I am on vacation or a business trip. In neither case do I want to deal with figuring out the logistics of charging in a city that I don't live and don't have the ability to charge easily at my house.

Also, it is asinine that rental companies get away with giving you an EV or PHEV car that is not at or near 100% charge. Nobody would accept a rental car with a 1/4 tank of gas.
Guitarsoup
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AG
The wrangler was an awful platform for a PHEV, especially at that price point.

My wife has the Pacifica Hybrid PHEV. We live in Kingwood, so kids schools, groceries, etc are all within a couple miles. Full charge = ~30-35mi. Average daily driving in Kingwood = ~10-15mi.

So over 4 years, we are getting almost 100mpg, because it only really uses gas when we go on a longer drive such as going to see grandma.

But for just staying in your suburban bubble, this thing is pretty much perfect.

If you are staying in a bubble like Kingwood, then maybe the Wrangler would work, but not at the extreme markup it got. The Pacifica Hybrid Limited was essentially the same price as the Pacifica Limited, only the hybrid got the free 7500 tax credit.
steve00
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AG
I had a 4xe Wrangler for about 2 years, and in the first two cities I lived in during that time it was perfect. My daily commute plus errands and entertainment was almost always less than 15 miles. I used no gas almost all the time. Whenever I went on road trips, I could go hybrid and not worry about charging, because I could just gas up anywhere.

When I bought, the rebate made the final cost cheaper than a gas Wrangler. I understand that after that they started increasing pricing so it was no longer a better financial deal.

Where I live now my commute (counting lunch) is no longer within the 20 mile range. It is close, but the fact that Jeep can't adequately service these PHEVs made it not worth keeping it. Two months in the shop during two years of ownership didn't work for me. I don't think the platform is unserviceable, I just think Jeep didn't train people at all the service departments how to service it. They had to call corporate for instructions on everything.
GAC06
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AG
You lived in a city with an off road vehicle that didn't have enough battery to reach something off pavement, and if you did reach it, you'd be lugging a battery and electric motor around. Not sure that's the ideal use case either, if there is one for a plug in wrangler.
Guitarsoup
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AG
GAC06 said:

You lived in a city with an off road vehicle that didn't have enough battery to reach something off pavement, and if you did reach it, you'd be lugging a battery and electric motor around. Not sure that's the ideal use case either, if there is one for a plug in wrangler.
Lets be honest, how many new 4-door wranglers get off the pavement?

Only the rentals.
steve00
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AG
Why does it need to have enough battery to get to an off road spot?

This was my daily driver and my off road vehicle. The point of the battery was that on any normal day I didn't need to use gas. If I went on a road trip or off road, I was using gas, while benefitting from the extra torque and HP that the battery provided.

I have absolutely almost gotten myself stuck on a flooded dirt trail in Mexico where I had water coming in from the bottom of the doors. Not many other vehicles would have gotten out of that.
GAC06
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AG
I guess I shouldn't try to reason with people who drive jeeps in the city.
steve00
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AG
It is very unclear what point you are trying to make.

I will stipulate that the majority of people that have a Wrangler never take it off road. And that is fine. Most people who have trucks don't haul stuff, and most people with sports cars don't race them. Most people with SUVs would be better served with minivans or sedans.

But of the people that do take their Wrangler off road, very few of them trailer it out and never drive it around town, so most of them drive their Jeep in the city.
GAC06
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AG
My point is that the wrangler 4xe is a terrible vehicle. A base wrangler looks to be about 33k, and a 4xe starts at over 50k. What's the mileage difference and how many miles would you need to drive to justify that difference? Meanwhile it's a crappy short range EV AND it's an ICE vehicle that gets to haul around a battery and electric motor.

If you want an EV, get an EV. If you want a relatively fuel efficient SUV to drive around the city, don't get a wrangler. If you want a wrangler for whatever reason, save money and just get a wrangler. The 4xe is the answer to a question nobody asked.
Guitarsoup
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AG
In Steve's case, the 4xe was a little cheaper than the regular one and for his initial purpose of short driving, it worked well, so I think in that limited use case it is fine. But a PHEV minivan would obviously be better in every conceivable way.


Most PHEVs only have 20-35mi of electric range. And a few years ago when I bought mine, there were only a few that were available and most were things like the Prius or Hyundai or the BMW i8 or Porsche. Now there are a lot more, but it still seems like the very compact green vehicles and the 75k+ Audis, BMWs, Porsches.
Woods Ag
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AG
steve00 said:

I would never rent a plugin hybrid or a full electric car, and I have previously owned the first and currently own the second.

If I am renting a car it means I am on vacation or a business trip. In neither case do I want to deal with figuring out the logistics of charging in a city that I don't live and don't have the ability to charge easily at my house.

Also, it is asinine that rental companies get away with giving you an EV or PHEV car that is not at or near 100% charge. Nobody would accept a rental car with a 1/4 tank of gas.


You assume I cared and made the choice because it was an electric/hybrid. I don't. I drive a 10mpg off road 97 LC purely bc I love it with a F250 Diesel in the driveway. My wife drives a JGC and has mentioned she'd like a Wrangler when hers dies (probably another 5-10 years) It was a chance check it out and I was disappointed that after I charged it, it was completely useless to drive from Galveston to the nearest coffee shop and back. Maybe it slightly more sense for the city lad that wants to look cool and only drives 7 miles a day and never gets off road.

I did the simple google search and read about it. That's how I knew the charging equip was in the back.
Woods Ag
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AG
GAC06 said:

My point is that the wrangler 4xe is a terrible vehicle. A base wrangler looks to be about 33k, and a 4xe starts at over 50k. What's the mileage difference and how many miles would you need to drive to justify that difference? Meanwhile it's a crappy short range EV AND it's an ICE vehicle that gets to haul around a battery and electric motor.

If you want an EV, get an EV. If you want a relatively fuel efficient SUV to drive around the city, don't get a wrangler. If you want a wrangler for whatever reason, save money and just get a wrangler. The 4xe is the answer to a question nobody asked.


This is correct. If you need a wrangler, get the rubicon gas and save the money. The 4xe is pointless.

Was really disappointed in what this vehicle was.
steve00
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AG
The 4xe is not comparable price-wise to a base model gas Jeep, as it automatically comes with a number of things that would be add-ons for a base model gas Jeep.

When I bought mine (ordered in 2020) it was about 4K more than a comparably equipped gas version. With the $7500 tax rebate, I came out ahead. I traded in my second Wrangler for this one, so I am pretty familiar with Jeep pros and cons.

In my original use case, I drove about 10k miles on pure electricity, at a time when my electric bill was a flat rate, so that was 10k miles at $0 fuel cost.

It is also much more enjoyable for me to drive in electric mode, due to it being super quiet and a smoother ride than gas.

This was the only vehicle my family had, so that is why I needed the hybrid capability, as I don't want to stop to charge an EV on a long road trip.

Overall, this was the perfect solution for my needs. It won't be perfect for most people, but it fills a need in the market.
steve00
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AG
Everything you have said so far in this thread underscores that you don't understand how a 4xe functions.

But using "Rubicon" and "save money" in the same sentence suggests you don't understand anything about Wranglers at all.
Jetpilot86
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AG
I had one as a rental a few months ago. The Plug in system is basically designed to get you about 30 miles on a charge. Regenerative charging was very minimal. I had a Dodge Dart hybrid the next month and it's in motion charging was vastly superior.

I think that the wrangler is just designed to get you the 30 miles out of the charge and thats it.
HollywoodBQ
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AG
steve00 said:

Everything you have said so far in this thread underscores that you don't understand how a 4xe functions.

But using "Rubicon" and "save money" in the same sentence suggests you don't understand anything about Wranglers at all.
OK - that was funny
Woods Ag
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AG
This is my first plug in hybrid. Obviously I'm not familiar with "how they function." I assumed they actually went somewhere on a charge.I guess they all get 30m to a charge and there are idiots out there that will buy an off road vehicle - not just a Wrangler, but a rubicon to drive short distances on pavement and pay extra money for a littler gas engine for basically no real added benefit. A scooter would do you better.

Where I'm from 30 miles is running into town.

Edit - I misunderstood your previous post. I thought you had mentioned you've had 2 4xe Jeeps (and they've been out 3-4 years?) and were telling me about their "value proposition" and it made me laugh my ass off.
Woods Ag
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AG
Woods Ag
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AG
steve00 said:

Everything you have said so far in this thread underscores that you don't understand how a 4xe functions.

But using "Rubicon" and "save money" in the same sentence suggests you don't understand anything about Wranglers at all.


It's funny you say this but I am not the one that spent $62k+ to buy one so that I could quietly scoot around the city to save money on gas. That's been your whole point and you're here to tell me that I don't understand.. that's rich…

A hybrid sole purpose is the illusion it saves you money. This thing got about 30 miles in hybrid mode before I was at 0% and back to 17ish mpg.
SteveA
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AG
62k - 7.5K. It was actually cheaper to buy the hybrid version than the regular 2 liter. You don't buy jeeps to save money, but the rebate and 25 miles of gas feee driving is pretty cool. You seem mad, bro.
bam02
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AG
Woods Ag said:

steve00 said:

Everything you have said so far in this thread underscores that you don't understand how a 4xe functions.

But using "Rubicon" and "save money" in the same sentence suggests you don't understand anything about Wranglers at all.


It's funny you say this but I am not the one that spent $62k+ to buy one so that I could quietly scoot around the city to save money on gas. That's been your whole point and you're here to tell me that I don't understand.. that's rich…

A hybrid sole purpose is the illusion it saves you money. This thing got about 30 miles in hybrid mode before I was at 0% and back to 17ish mpg.


If you get 30 miles every day before your ICE kicks in how does that not save most people money?
Woods Ag
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AG
Doesn't work for me, clearly. The advertisements of camping outdoors and using the battery were all just that and not based in reality.

I was hoping for more, is all.
meggy09
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AG
Woods Ag said:

Doesn't work for me, clearly. The advertisements of camping outdoors and using the battery were all just that and not based in reality.

I was hoping for more, is all.


It doesn't work for a lot of people, but that doesn't change the fact that you're an idiot.
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