Introduction to the 2025 Jeep Avenger 4xe
Jeep's smallest model, the compact Avenger, is one of our favourite products from the American off-road specialist firm, but so far, all versions sold have been front-wheel drive - meaning the usual adventurous nature of a 'true' Jeep has been denied this B-segment vehicle.
Now, though, comes the Avenger 4xe (that's 'four-by-e', not '4-ex-e'), which takes the existing single-motor e-Hybrid derivative and adds a secondary motor on the rear axle. This gives the 4xe all-wheel drive, so Jeep is positioning this as a more rugged and off-road-capable variant of what is ostensibly a small, urban crossover at heart.
We've been over to the Yorkshire Dales in the UK to try the Avenger 4xe out in its flagship and limited-build specification of The North Face Edition, to see if it's as good on- and off-road as its manufacturer claims.
Pros & Cons of the 2025 Jeep Avenger 4xe
Pros: Rugged appeal, immense off-road capability, smooth manners
Cons: Noisy drivetrain, cramped rear seats, expensive as North Face
Exterior & Design of the 2025 Jeep Avenger 4xe
• The North Face Edition stands out
• Has an extra 10mm of ground clearance
• Best-looking Jeep after the Wrangler Rubicon
The North Face is an American clothing company that ostensibly specialises in selling gear for outdoorsy types (and most teenagers of a certain age throughout Ireland...), so the tie-up with compatriot firm Jeep is understandable.
All Avenger 4xe models have lower-body styling and bumpers which emphasise their off-road ability compared to the front-wheel-drive derivatives, besides the fitment of roof rails up top and a towing hook at the back of the vehicle, but The North Face Edition takes things further with some stand-out flourishes.
The most unmissable feature will be the huge, non-reflective bonnet decal, which has 'The North Face' written on a black panel, next to a yellow strip with contour lines on it plus the correct geographical co-ordinates for Mont Blanc.
Beyond that, there's more yellow detailing (it's Summit Gold, technically speaking) in the front airdam of the Jeep, as well as on the centre caps of the black 17-inch alloy wheels, and more contour-line motifs in the famed seven-bar grille of the Avenger.
All in all, it adds up to a great-looking vehicle and there's a real sense of purpose to the Avenger 4xe The North Face Edition - helped by all the test cars on the launch being fitted with the optional, chunky all-terrain tyres to give them even more 'stance'.
The Avenger 4xe's dimensions are:
Length: 4,088mm
Width: 1,776mm
Height: 1,541mm
Wheelbase: 2,557mm
Interior, Practicality, Tech & Comfort of the 2025 Jeep Avenger 4xe
• North Face spec lifts interior ambience
• Tight space in rear seats
• Boot in 4xe smallest of any Avenger
The North Face Edition might be pricey, and it might be limited, but it really helps with the ambience of the Jeep Avenger's cabin. All Stellantis vehicles based on this compact platform have cheap interior finishing - that's not a gripe, specifically, as they're all at the affordable end of the price range, but if you sit in something like a Fiat 600e then it feels a bit... plasticky and underwhelming inside.
The North Face, however, really jazzes things up, primarily with its seats which have silvery centre sections that are designed to look like the clothing firm's ubiquitous puffer jackets, all enlivened with flashes of yellow to tie in with the exterior-colour theme.
On the backs of the front seats are some The North Face corporate emblems and elasticated straps lower down - in lieu of traditional pockets - which are supposed to make you think of The North Face backpacks. There's then a silver dash insert, once again featuring topographical relief lines and a numbering decal on the passenger-side dash to say this is 'One Of 4806' examples.
These touches make the 4xe The North Face Edition feel a step above other models in the range, despite the fact it still has hard and brittle door cards, as well as a dearth of soft-touch plastics in some key places that betray its origins as a platform-sharing value exercise. In general, we approve of this Avenger's cabin, even if the tech (twin 10.25-inch digital screens) is only OK rather than outstanding.
The biggest bugbear of the 4xe is a familiar one in any Avenger, namely a lack of space aft of the front row of seats. Legroom in the back of the Jeep isn't great and calling it a full five-seater seems optimistic, while the addition of a motor on its rear axle also robs this model of outright boot space compared to its siblings, meaning the all-wheel-drive Avenger has the smallest cargo area of all variants.
Performance of the 2025 Jeep Avenger 4xe
• 136hp and 230Nm brings some added pep
• 4xe far more capable off-road than it needs to be
• Engine sounds strange at times
In the simplest possible terms, Jeep has taken the existing e-Hybrid drivetrain you can already get in the Avenger family and then added another electric motor to it. This new 21kW unit goes on the rear axle to complement the front propulsion unit, with the whole lot hooked to a turbocharged 1.2-litre, three-cylinder petrol engine situated under the Jeep's stickered-up bonnet.
All told, the enhanced drivetrain adds 36hp and 25Nm to the overall figures of the Avenger 4xe, meaning it musters up peaks of 136hp and 230Nm. This places it neatly between the 100hp plain-petrol and front-wheel-drive e-Hybrid models, and the 156hp Avenger Electric.
Despite weighing almost 200kg more than the e-Hybrid and having more power, Jeep says the 4xe is almost as efficient to run, so you're not suffering a penalty there. And, of course, what it brings is some significant advantages off-road, as well as (on paper, at least) peppier performance.
Accepting that our test car was on specialised tyres designed to get it further into the landscape than regular rubber, the Avenger 4xe The North Face Edition is way more capable in the rough stuff than its owners will likely ever need it to be.
It can climb steep, rubbly ascents with ease, and with an unusual hill descent control set-up - it runs at about 10km/h down slopes if the car is in 'D', but slows to 6km/h if you put the Jeep into neutral (N) - then it feels controlled and sure-footed away from tarmac.
It's not as if it has special differentials or gear ratios, either, as the twin electric motors and six-speed dual-clutch gearbox are controlled differently and automatically according to whether the car is in 'Sand/Mud' or 'Auto' drive modes (there are also 'Sport' and 'Snow' settings to play with).
It simply scrambles about rougher terrain with an ease that's at odds with the crossover nature of the Avenger in general, but which sits comfortably with Jeep's own 'go anywhere' brand ethos. We even forded deeper water in the 4xe with little difficulty, as it has 210mm of total ground clearance and a 400mm wading depth.
So off-road it's mega, and on-road it's perfectly fine too, with a few caveats. The 1.2-litre engine plus front electric motor can make some odd whooshing, whistling noises when accelerating with meaning from lower speeds, while that six-speed transmission is not the finest nor slickest of its type.
Also, despite the 136hp and 9.5-second 0-100km/h claims, the 4xe didn't feel appreciably livelier in practice than the 100hp e-Hybrid when it comes to pure acceleration.
But light, pleasantly geared steering - which admittedly lacks feel - and impressive body control mean you can hustle the 4xe along at a reasonable pace on a twisting road, without it feeling like it is leaning and lurching appallingly, while the general ride comfort and rolling refinement levels are superb for this class of vehicle.
Interestingly, dependent on the drive mode selected, the four-wheel-drive system works in a 50:50 torque split up to 30km/h, for close control off-road, then switches to a part-time, on-demand set-up between 30- and 90km/h for a balance of on-road efficiency and traction advantages.
Above 90km/h, the rear motor is then 'decoupled' completely for the best possible fuel consumption. This gives the Avenger sweet handling, because it has the four-wheel-drive ability to fire out of slower corners with its tractive advantages, while the higher-speed cornering feels more natural as the car runs in two-wheel-drive format.
Running Costs of the 2025 Jeep Avenger 4xe
• Officially capable of 5.4 litres/100km
• CO2 emissions kept reasonable, so €200 motor tax
• Might not be as efficient in the real world
The Jeep Avenger 4xe cannot run for long distances on electric power alone as a 48-volt hybrid, so the only real indication the 1.2-litre engine has dropped out is that the speedometer graphic turns light blue, instead of white.
Nevertheless, Jeep still quotes an impressive figure of 5.4 litres/100km, along with a reasonably low figure of 122g/km of CO2 emissions, resulting in a modest €200 per annum motor tax.
Still, it's obviously not going to be as cheap to run as the zero-emission Avenger Electric available elsewhere in the range, while we saw less-than-impressive real-world returns from the 4xe.
During a relatively gentle road-route test, it turned in 8.1 litres/100km (34.8mpg), but if you do take it off-roading then expect much higher consumption. Across 20km of testing, which were - granted - not hugely representative of what owners would do with the Jeep, it managed just 19.5 litres/100km (14.5mpg); that hybrid gear can only do so much to save petrol in these circumstances.
Irish Pricing & Rivals of the 2025 Jeep Avenger 4xe
• The North Face Edition is expensive
• 4WD a real selling point in this sector
• But some competitors do AWD cheaper
The problem with the 4xe, and The North Face Edition in particular, is that while all other versions of the Avenger - the petrol model, the e-Hybrid and the Electric - start at €29,995 in basic Longitude specification, the all-wheel-drive variant is much dearer.
This is not just because of its enhanced technical content and greater power, but also because it is sold in its own three-tier trim line-up of Upland, Overland and The North Face Edition.
This means that The North Face Edition 4xe you can see here is a whopping 60 per cent more than a base-model Avenger. So you really have to ask yourself if the variant-specific styling details, the generous standard specification on the North Face and its go-anywhere capability are truly necessary to you on such a compact vehicle as this - or whether you'd be just as well off in a nice Altitude or Summit e-Hybrid version instead.
It's true that four-wheel drive is not common in the compact B-segment crossover section of the market these days, and even if some rivals provide it then it tends to be a fairly 'gentle' system that wouldn't come close to matching the off-road skills of the Jeep. Yet there are some rivals we've listed in our Rivals section here that can get closer to its level, for less cash - something to think about if that's a really important facet for you.
Verdict - Should You Buy the 2025 Jeep Avenger 4xe?
For its smart exterior styling, enhanced interior and exceptional (for this class) off-road abilities, the Jeep Avenger 4xe The North Face Edition is definitely worthy of your consideration - it drives sweetly in all circumstances, and it looks mighty appealing, inside and out, as well.
That said, this is a limited-availability model and it's very expensive in this specification, while not all buyers of this type of small runaround really need to venture into the wilderness on a regular basis. So perhaps some of the cheaper, more rounded models of the Avenger elsewhere in the range would be a better bet for buyers here.
FAQs About the 2025 Jeep Avenger 4xe
Is the Jeep Avenger 4xe a plug-in hybrid?
No, despite the fact that 4xe is used for PHEVs elsewhere in the Jeep family, the Avenger is only a 48-volt hybrid. It sits above the existing single-motor e-Hybrid Avenger in the range.
Is the Jeep Avenger 4xe only sold in The North Face Edition spec?
No, it will also be sold in Upland (€39,995) or Overland (€42,995) trims. The North Face Edition is also a limited-availability spec, so if you do like the look of it then you need to move fast to snap it up.
Why is the Avenger 4xe The North Face Edition limited to 4,806 examples?
It's the height of Mont Blanc, the highest point above sea level in Europe, in metres. Although clothing company The North Face's own logo is based on Half Dome, a distinctive mountain in Yosemite National Park in the firm's native USA, the Avenger is a Europe-only model of the Jeep and so Mont Blanc was chosen as a more appropriate beacon. That's also why the French Alp's coordinates are printed on this Jeep's bonnet graphic.
Is the Jeep Avenger 4xe the most powerful model in the range?
No, the Electric variant still beats it, with 156hp/260Nm, but that's a single-motor car without 4WD and it weighs slightly more than the 4xe, so the latter is a little quicker for 0-100km/h.
Want to know more about the Jeep Avenger 4xe?
Is there anything else you'd like to know about the Jeep Avenger 4xe? Or anything you feel we haven't covered here? Then just head over to our Ask Us Anything section and, well, ask us anything.
