New Delhi: Vehicle manufacturer Jeep India has decided to discontinue the petrol engine variants of its Compass SUV in India. Because the 1.4-litre turbo-petrol unit found in it does not meet the new BS6 Stage 2 emission norms that came into effect from April last month. The company has already started phasing out the petrol engine with the discontinuation of its manual variants in December 2022, after which the petrol engine was only available with the DCT automatic gearbox, which has now been discontinued.
Now petrol engine will not be available
Jeep had already discontinued the 1.4-litre turbo-petrol engine in overseas markets due to stricter emission norms. This engine was available in markets like South America and Europe. Which was replaced by a new and more performing 1.3-litre turbo-petrol engine in the 2020 facelifted Compass.
Given the stringent BS6 Stage 2 emission norms in India, Jeep should have replaced the old 1.4-litre engine with the new 1.3-litre engine here too, but Jeep did not do so considering the local sales and exports.
That’s why new engine was not found
The petrol engine accounted for around 50-60 percent of Compass sales in India, and in some metro cities like Delhi it was up to 80 percent of total sales. On an average, only around 650 units of this SUV are sold in a month. Which means the share of petrol variants is 350-400 units in a month. So, there is no big advantage for the company in bringing a new engine for just a few hundred units a month.
Jeep Compass Trailhawk also discontinued
Apart from the petrol variants, Jeep has also discontinued the top-spec Trailhawk variant of the Compass which was available with a 2.0-litre diesel engine and 4X4 drivetrain. The model has been removed from the Jeep India website, but some dealers still have a small stock of it.
May return in 2026
The petrol engine may return to the Compass line-up in India with the next generation model expected in 2026. An all-electric version is also expected to arrive. Jeep Compass competes with cars like Tata Safari and Mahindra XUV700 in India. The Safari only gets a diesel engine, while the XUV700 gets petrol and diesel engine options.
