The Jeep Recon was/is the brand’s attempt at making a vehicle that works as both an everyday electric vehicle and an off-roader that’s true to the company’s trail-rated ethos. We haven’t driven it yet, but just from the stats David felt like the Recon could live up to expectations where the road ends.
It’s where the road exists that seems to be a problem for the Recon, and it might explain why the company has sold so few of them so far this year. The most recent sales report shows that the brand has only sold 82 Recons in 2026.
Car And Driver put the new Recon on its highway range test, and the results were almost offensively bad:
The Recon, with its 94-kWh battery pack, managed just 160 miles of range in our test. That result falls well short of the 222 miles of range the Moab launch trim is estimated to deliver, according to the EPA.
That is not great. This isn’t the EPA cycle, but a specific test C/D does that involves charging up an EV to 100% and getting on the highway and driving at 75 miles-per-hour. In this way, it’s probably more indicative of how Americans drive than the EPA test.
A range of 160 miles is just not acceptable out of that big of a battery. An efficiency of just 1.7 miles per kWh puts it in the same company as the original Hummer EV Edition 1 (1.4 m/kWh) and Mercedes-Benz G580 (1.4 m/kWh). The difference between those vehicles and the Recon is that they’re both gigantic.
A better comparison, sizewise, is the Rivian R2. Here’s the range and performance chart for the R2:
The Rivian, with a smaller 87.9 kWh battery, manages to get at least 330 miles even with two motors and AWD on the EPA range test compared to 220 from the Jeep. In the C/D test, the R2 was able to go 260 miles.
We haven’t done a side-by-side comparison, and it’s possible the Jeep is better off-road than the R2 (it’s also possible it’s worse). It doesn’t really matter if you can never get to where you want to off-road.
Even before there were any details out about the Recon, David guessed this might be a problem:
An inefficient overall vehicle design catered towards off-road capability works as an ICE, but in an EV, it causes all sorts of issues. Because it takes so much energy to get down the road thanks to those tires and aerodynamic inefficiencies like high ground clearance and sharp corners, range decreases just like it does on a gas car. But increasing the “tank size” on an EV is both heavy, expensive, and environmentally taxing. I could probably dig up some ABC coefficients from the EPA and roughly calculate how big of a battery, approximately, one might need in order to score 250 miles of range on a modern Jeep Wrangler (I’d have to make a few assumptions); suffice it to say: it’d have to be big. And thus, the vehicle would have to be expensive and heavy and filled with precious metals.
While the Recon has a more aerodynamically efficient design than a Wrangler, it doesn’t seem to matter much. The combination of the elevated ground clearance, inefficient motors, and all-terrain tires just seems to sap real world range.
I like the way the Recon looks (not a universal thought) and the concept of an electric off-roader is appealing to me. I just don’t understand who the customer is for such a compromised vehicle when Rivian’s most expensive R2 is less than the Jeep’s $70,000 price.
Top photo: Jeep
“All-electric Stellantis product”
Guys I know it’s spooky season but damn
How is this even possible?
Chrysler, Dodge, DaimlerChrysler, Jeep, RAM, AMC, FCA, STLA needs to hang up their hat(s).
I am a Jeep wrangler owner and shopping for an EV and I would not touch this thing unless it was 1/2 the price.
I could go out and get a $30K EV AND!!!! a $40K Wrangler and be better off.
Just doing the math, the R2 tested at 78% of the EPA rating and the Recon tested at 72%. That doesn’t seem like a spectacular fail, just an expected one. The max range figure is a failure, sure, but also obviously lower than other competitors. In short, none of this is a surprise if you think about it for 2 seconds based on already public info on the Recon.
From that perspective I agree. The real issue is how they manage to get so little range out of 94 kWh pack.
They had to know from internal testing this was going to be bad.
Insane fumble. I try to root for Chrysler as a perennial underdog, but this is indefensible as a consumer product in 2026.
Also, this should be the EPA test, or at least part of it, akin to city and highway mpg ratings. Very few are going to really care about max range when doing mixed driving, because of home charging, or at least easy access to charging. Range is really only relevant on road trips, and that number should be published.
Just pretend that it’s the 80’s again and it’s ok.
It’s like they forgot why Teslas are shaped like eggs.
Little known fact: During the week they did R&D on this thing, Recon was short for hurry up and Reconnect it to the charger!
If the recon had an 800V architecture that would allow it to recoup 70% of the battery in under 20 minutes.. it would probably not be a terrible vehicle to road trip in and the range and efficiency would be something it could recover from…
Jeep doesn’t mention charging performance anywhere on the website… so… my concern is that recon is going to need 30-40 minutes to recover 120 miles of highway driving range.. which is ROUGH.. and that’s before we talk about cost.
But cost per mile on a road trip with this? might as well be driving a 12 mpg wrangler Rubicon.
Agreed, and at 75mph on the highway I can get nearly 18-19 in my lifted big tire wrangler.
Time to retcon the Recon. Count me among those with a strong dislike of its appearance, too. Were we supposed be impressed that the doors come off?
What an absolutely laughably bad product. I genuinely do not understand who this thing is for, 70k and barely 220 rated miles of range, with sub-200 actual. These, the Hornet, any Maserati, and Charger EV are going to be neck and neck for longest time on lot across the whole industry.
Should just come from the factory with an H-swap. What is that? You swap the J for an H in the logo, so everyone knows that’s you’re driving a HEEP.
This thing won’t even make it from the order speaker to the pickup window at the Biggby Coffee drive through.
And my gas car could NEVER get it’s 27mpg Highway rating doing 75mph either.
Funny how that works? Are people actually that dumb enough so they feel the need to do articles like this?
Glad I stopped supporting C&D.
Are you new to this country?
While C&D does indeed suck these days, a gas car will get refueled in like 2 minutes. Plus you can carry with you gas cans if you are going off-roading and need more range.
If an EV doesn’t have a minimum of around 250 miles, it is seen as utterly useless to most people. Especially since everyone is told to normally top off at 80%, so you just lost the top 20% of your range. And cold weather will drop your total another 1/3 or so.
“Plus you can carry with you gas cans if you are going off-roading and need more range”
Exactly. This Recon is not a very good proposition in my part of the West.
What an irrelevant and anecdotal take. C&D isn’t comparing gas to EVs here or even trying to make this car look bad (doesn’t seem difficult to do though). The point is to drive the car like real people who, in America, absolutely would drive their car at 75mph on the highway until they have to refuel/recharge. They are reporting ACTUAL range in a standardized way and the fact that their standards for comparison are different than the EPA’s generous ones is the whole point.
Dunno, my gas car gets 10-20% higher mpg at 75mph than the EPA rating. My gas SUV with a small lift get about 10% less. This Jeep takes almost a 30% hit. Seems worth noting.
It just looks so bad with the doors off. Why didn’t they just skateboard a Wrangler on an EV battery?
It looks so bad with the doors ON too.
This is going to sell about as well as the Charger. WTF is Stellantis even doing these days?!
I wouldn’t worry about the range. If the 4xe is any indication, it will be on a flatbed being taken back to the service center long before the battery runs out of juice.
after the fire department leaves?
Isn’t 1.7 miles per kwh the same as the Telsa Semi?
General: Soldier, give me the Recon report.
Soldier: It’s a big bucket of fail sir.
General: Keep it under your hat, we’ll blame Carlos Tavares. (not pictured)
Edit: Apparently I can’t spell soldier.
The Recon will certainly help you become one with nature, as you won’t be able to return from it.
So, to put it another way, you get the full Land Rover experience for Jeep money?
Based on the price of the Recon, I think you’re getting the full Land Rover experience for Land Rover money.
Based on the photos of the Recon interior, you’re certainly not getting the full Land Rover comfort treatment for the price of a Land Rover.