Wrangler to stay “undiluted,” other Jeeps for India

Allpar asked Sergio Marchionne whether the company would be producing a version of a Jeep “such as the Wrangler” but at lower cost, for developing countries and markets such as India. While his answer focused on Wrangler by name (rather than, say, J-8), it appears that this is not in the works:

Not based on what I know today. I think we need to be very careful about touching Wrangler. I don’t want the cheap version of the Wrangler anyway.

The Wrangler is the Wrangler, so if we do anything else – and we will – it’s not going to be a Wrangler. It won’t be a degradation of the Wrangler brand, of the nameplate. I mean Wrangler is almost a brand within a brand and I think you need to be careful about protecting it for a variety of reasons.

But that doesn’t mean that we will not be producing Jeeps in India, and in fact the portfolio that we’re looking at right now in terms of development does incorporate a substantial expansion of the Jeep portfolio in India but through other nameplates which currently exist in our world – within the Jeep world – and some of which will be coming in 2014.

The timeframe indicates the upcoming Punto-based subcompact Jeep, already announced, and possibly the Jeep Liberty/Cherokee.