Jeep's crazy Grand Cherokee Trackhawk screeches in for 2020

Jeep has waved the upgrade wand over its fastest, most powerful Grand Cherokee ever for 2020, bestowing the insane Trackhawk with a midlife refresh that takes nothing away from its crazy side.

The Trackhawk is, of course, powered by a supercharged 6.2-litre Hemi V8 engine – known in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) parlance as the Hellcat engine – and produces a truly astronomical 522kW of power and an even more amazing 868Nm of torque, easily holding the mantle of most powerful SUV in Australia.

In fact, the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk is the third most powerful car you can buy in Australia at any price – and you can buy about 13 of them for the price of the top two, Lamborghini’s V12-powered Aventador and the McLaren 720S.

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The monster powerplant is accompanied by key engineering updates to parts like hubs and other drivetrain parts, along with the biggest brakes ever fitted to a Jeep product.

After dropping off price lists for a few months, Jeep has given the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk the once-over for 2020 via a new set of forged 20-inch alloy rims wrapped in high-performance Pirelli P-Zero tyres, and has added a high-grade Laguna leather upholstery.

Carbon interior highlights, a 7.0-inch digital dash and an updated Uconnect 8.4-inch multimedia touchscreen with sat nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as auto lights and wipers, a powered tailgate and colour-coded wheel arch flares are all standard features.

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Add to that a vast array of safety features, including trailer sway control and at-speed towing camera, adaptive cruise control, lane departure, blind spot warning and rear cross-traffic alerts, and the Trackhawk looks like a bit of a bargain when compared to rivals like Mercedes-AMG’s 450kW/850Nm GLE63 S AMG Coupe, the 405kW/680Nm Range Rover Sport SVR and the 460kW/750Nm BMW X5 M.

This midlife update comes with a price hike, though with the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk now priced at $139,950 plus on-road costs.

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The current Grand Cherokee architecture can actually be traced all the way back to the Mercedes-Benz ML-Class of 2006, when Merc’s parent company Daimler owned Jeep’s overlord Chrysler.

The Grand Cherokee’s replacement could, however, be revealed as soon as next year.

Earlier this year, Jeep Australia has announced a new capped price servicing program for 2020, which covers the whole range of new Jeep models, including its Grand Cherokee SRT and Trackhawk.

New Jeep models under the program will have a capped-price servicing cost from just $399 per service for the first five services.