Jeep copycats are pushing the brand to ‘lean in more’

Jeep says the growing number of lookalike off-roaders and copycat design cues across the auto market isn’t diluting the US off-road brand’s identity but instead it’s pushing Jeep to double down on its core DNA.

Speaking with Australian media at the 2026 Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, Jeep vice president of exterior design Vince Galante said the issue is now bigger than a few obvious imitators from India or China.

“I think everybody has gone rugged, like everybody has red or orange tow hooks,” Mr Galante said.

Rather than treating that as a threat, he said it has had the opposite effect inside Jeep as the trend “encourages us” and “motivates us” because ruggedness is “authentically us”.

“So it fuels me to lean in more... [but] I also don’t want to get stuck,” Mr Galante said.

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According to Mr Galante, Jeep's authenticity is less about retro styling cues than whether a vehicle still behaves like a Jeep should.

"If it functions well, and it’s still a tool, and it does all the Jeep stuff, no questions asked, and it speaks to the owners and speaks to the community," he said.

While admitting that models like the Ford Bronco have pushed Jeep to work even harder on its future models, Mr Galante said owner feedback matters a great deal to his design team.

“I love to hear what owners think as the designer,” he said. “Sometimes I’m like, horrified [by the custom modifications], but it’s theirs, and they made it their own. And I love that.”

He said Jeep watches closely when bolder ideas split opinion, rather than trying to engineer bland consensus.

“I go through all the forums. I read all the comments. I want to know what people think,” he said.

“Half of them were... this is the best thing ever. Sign me up. I want it. And half of them were like... that’s terrible. I hate it. Some people love them. Some people hate that same thing [and] that’s okay.”

That willingness to provoke a reaction, while staying rooted in capability, appears to be central to how Jeep plans to evolve as more brands crowd into the lifestyle 4x4 space.

“I think because we’ve stayed true to our roots, that’s why it’s lived so long, you know?” said Mr Galante.

That philosophy is especially important when it comes to icons like the Jeep Wrangler.

“I have a respect for the Wrangler like I have a respect for the Porsche 911,” Mr Galante said, suggesting that changing the underlying concept of the Wrangler in the way that Land Rover did with the Defender would seem unlikely.

If a future Wrangler takes a bigger styling step, he said it won’t be because Jeep wants change for change’s sake.

“…it’ll be for those reasons, rather than I want it to look different,” he said, referring to changes that make it “that much more capable” or “that much more flexible for people to modify”.

For the company's chief designer, that remains the dividing line between a Jeep and the growing number of vehicles borrowing its look.

“…it’ll be the function that will drive the form more than the form will drive the function,” said Mr Galante.

The current (JL-series) Jeep Wrangler is the fourth generation of its nameplate and made its public debut all the way back in late 2017. At the historical rate of a new model every decade or so, that indicates a new model should be getting ready for an unveiling toward the end of next year, before likely going into production by 2028.

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