Jeep confirms Range Rover rival

Fiat-Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne has confirmed, obliquely, that Jeep is working on a luxury model to rival the Range Rover and Mercedes GLS. Set to be called Grand Wagoneer (something of a heritage name for Jeep) the new car would be based on the current Grand Cherokee, but would come with a third row of seats and a far more luxurious interior.

Marchionne confirmed the plan to Reuters, saying that “when I see a Range Rover on the street, my blood boils, because we should be able to do a thing like that, and we will.”

The comments come as Marchionne completes a visit to the US, not merely to work with Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep bosses on that side of the Atlantic but also to meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Tesla boss Elon Musk.

Marchionne was apparently full of praise for Musk ("I'm incredibly impressed with what that kid has done" he said) but stopped short of confirming or denying whether Fiat was consulting with Apple on a possible future electric car. It's more likely, at the moment, that Mr Marchionne was meeting with Apple to discuss the introduction of Apple's car-friendly phone-pairing technology, CarPlay. Ferrari will be one of the first car makers to launch with CarPlay.

Marchionne was spreading himself around Silicon Valley a bit – he also hitched a ride in one of Google's autonomous cars. Mr Marchionne has previously said that he would welcome a possible merger between Fiat-Chrysler and such as Google or Apple, as he throws his net wider than existing car makers in his search for a future merger partner.