After a few-year hiatus, the Jeep Cherokee returns, sporting a redesign for its third generation, bringing a hybrid setup to the table as a standard offering. Continuing somewhat of a tradition of having the Cherokee around, Jeep brought some big changes but in a compact size, starting with a new hybrid powertrain that’s standard across the board for all trim levels, potentially making the Cherokee cost a bit more than competitors but offering up a plethora of features that make it seem like more of a value.

The new Jeep Cherokee is a major departure from the much larger Jeep Grand Cherokee, where they fundamentally do not share much other than part of the nameplate. Now powered by a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine paired with two electric motors and a smallish hybrid battery, the new Cherokee commits to being a fuel sipper for its class.

Making the combined 210 horsepower and about 221 lb-ft of torque, the powertrain initially feels up to the task, sending power to all four wheels, as there’s a mechanical connection instead of just having an electric motor out back, as you find in many other hybrids in related segments. The compromise here comes with a disappointment in its overall acceleration, which takes 8.7 seconds to hit 60 mph. The initial power out of the hole feels good, but tends to falter as the vehicle gets moving, where you are often forced to plan out merging into traffic situations. Part of the lackluster acceleration points to the continuously variable transmission (CVT) or what Jeep calls their electric variable transmission. Either way, there’s a bit of performance left on the table where I believe the hybrid motor and engine combination isn’t all that bad, as it performs transitions smoothly without any noticeable drama or hiccups. The issue somewhat rests on the CVT.

While the hybrid powertrain isn’t as refined or intelligent as those from Toyota, Jeep has done well to commit to an all-hybrid offering in the new Cherokee that tends to match the EPA fuel economy estimates easily in the real world. To that benefit, the new Cherokee is quite efficient in its quest to get the EPA estimates of 39 mpg city, 35 mpg highway, and 37 mpg combined. There’s a 13.7-gallon fuel tank, which, when filled with regular unleaded, gives you a cruising range of up to 534 miles in the city or about 480 miles on the highway. The Cherokee can achieve respectable fuel economy numbers partly by disconnecting the rear wheels from the power when you’re cruising. Overall, the driving character is mostly a thoughtless endeavor and numb to your senses, but exudes a smooth ride quality and doesn’t seem to live up to expectations if you ever go off-road, even with the off-roading drive modes.

Inside, the new Jeep Cherokee is fully reworked with a surprisingly spacious cabin for its compact classification. What keeps things from being stellar is the cheapened feeling of the materials used. Where the new Cherokee attempts to make up for the plasticky feeling throughout is the soft-touch upper dashboard and door trim surfaces, along with having contrasting colors throughout, a configurable 10.25-inch digital driver’s gauge cluster with an interactive map display, and a simplistic 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen that runs the latest Uconnect5 software. I also welcome over-the-air updates for the system, along with having standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration that worked well to pair to my iPhone and charge it up through the convenient smartphone charging pad angled in front of the armrest storage area.

The seating areas have a good amount of space and adjustability via a 10-way power driver’s seat. The square-ish steering wheel takes a bit to get used to, but the easy driving character and smooth ride qualities seem to be what make the Cherokee acceptable in my view. There’s a decent amount of equipment as part of my Cherokee Limited trimmed test vehicle that included the highlights of LED fog lights, heated and power-adjustable front seats, heated steering wheel, adaptive cruise control with active driving assist, traffic sign information, perforated leatherette seating surfaces, dual-pane panoramic sunroof, remote start, power liftgate, and dual-zone automatic climate control.

The world of compact crossovers continues to be very competitive, and Jeep’s new Cherokee, being a hybrid-only setup, will do well at this current time if consumers looking to save a little don’t go for the top trims. It would be nice to see Jeep offer an off-roading trim, which I am certain will come soon, along with an alternative powertrain option to add some much-needed power if you’re going to treat this Cherokee like a Jeep.

Pricing for the new Jeep Cherokee starts at $35,000 for the base trim before any fees or options. Moving to the Laredo at $38,000 and then my Cherokee Limited test vehicle trim that starts at $40,000, things start to get a little harder to digest when you compare others in the same segment like the Mazda CX-50, Honda CR-V, Ford Bronco Sport, Volkswagen Tiguan, and even the Toyota RAV4. My nicely equipped Cherokee Limited comes to a total price of $45,580 with a few option packages, while the very top-trimmed Cherokee Overland thankfully doesn’t increase much on the pricing as it bundles up some of the options found on my Limited trim test vehicle.