Returning Jeep to the Midsize-pickup Market

May 1, 2019

The engineering program for the 2020 Jeep Gladiator was managed in the company’s dual-responsibility style that seats approximately equal authority in the Chief Engineer and a “Model Responsible” executive/engineer who brings an additional perspective — and responsibilities — to the effort.

During the Gladiator’s early-spring media introduction, SAE editorial director Bill Visnic spoke with Elizabeth Krear, Gladiator Model Responsible - Jeep Engineering and Pete Milosavlevski, Chief Engineer, about the program’s development targets and priorities, the importance of the Gladiator’s connection to the iconic Wrangler—and the challenge of returning after 27 years to a midsize-pickup market segment facing capable and well-established competitor models.

Krear most recently served as chief engineer for the highly-regarded Ram 1500 pickup; among other projects, Milosavlevski worked on the Dodge Dart, the 2009 Ram and the Promaster/Promaster City commercial vans. They are respectively referenced as EK and PM in the following text.

Once the Gladiator program was green-lighted to be based on the Wrangler, what was the most significant development aspect when you knew you were going to adapt an existing platform?

PM: It’s finding a balance between not compromising offroad capability while making a viable mid-sized truck in the segment. So increased payload, increased towing, now we’re talking about an increased gross vehicle rating [target] that the vehicle has to survive.

And so with that, we’re talking about structural enhancements to the frame, frame changes, rear-suspension changes, rear axle changes—and then figuring out exactly where to locate the pickup points, optimize it in a way that’s going to be more than competitive.

EK: Pete’s describing how we establish it, but it’s even a step further: the objectives were to be best-in-class. The objectives were to be the most capable offroad truck.

Elizabeth, Pete mentioned you are sometimes a “cost hammer” for him — because you have to say “Wait a minute, you know we can’t do this, we can’t do that.”

PM: (Laughs) I said it in a ‘positive’ way! I look at it as neutral, because everybody [in the development program] is kind of a cost hammer.

EK: We’re checks-and-balances. At the end of the day, I own the metrics, he owns the metrics. Pete owns the technical metrics, but I own all the metrics. So if one of those [technical] metrics isn’t met, then one of mine doesn’t match. But — he doesn’t ‘own’ the financial metric! In the end, we always want what’s best for the customer.

Wait — the best thing for the buyer is something that’s $20,000, not $35,000, right?

EK: It’s a different customer, the customer who buys the $20,000 truck; that truck’s not going to be able to do that [rigorous offroad) course you’re going to do today.

PM: We want the best thing for our customers, and our customer will pay a little more because they get a special product. They get a product that there’s nothing like out there. Like a removable top, the capability that you get with standard four-wheel drive, the look, the feel, it’s just different. So, it’s like with anything else — I’ll pay a premium for certain things that I’m really enthusiastic about.

Is there something beyond this, something you didn’t get to do with the Gladiator configuration?

PM: If you’re referring to the size of the box, cab sizes, cab selection — the 5-foot box meets the needs of 80% of the customers out there. And that’s what we’ve catered to initially; we don’t talk about future product, but anything’s possible, though, depending on how customers react to it. The frame’s definitely adaptable.

EK: There’s always the possibility to do more, but that’s definitely a “brand” call and where the market is going. Engineers can always engineer anything!