Easter is almost here, and the faithful are preparing for traditional rituals. Yes, the religious faithful. But the mud-and-oil faithful, as well.
Jeep celebrates the season yearly with an off-road festival in Moab, Utah, called the Easter Safari.
The event means concept cars, often as brightly colored as dyed eggs, showing off possible future vehicles and accessories.
Jeep has teased two this week. They did it with washed-out drawings, so there’s only so much we can tell about the vehicles they show. But the mystery is the point. It adds to the anticipation.
One is old-school — it seems to show a single-cab, short-bed pickup. If it’s a Gladiator, the proportions have changed. It looks more like a rebirth of the classic Scrambler than anything else. But that could be artistic license.
The drawing shows a short overhang at the rear and raked B-pillars almost reminiscent of the Chevy Avalanche. The drawing lacks doors entirely and seems to be riding on giant wheels, perhaps 35 inches.
The other shows a Wrangler Unlimited 4xe plug-in hybrid (you can tell by the electric blue outlines on the logos) with tube doors. Cargo nets behind the rear doors — OK, we don’t know what the cargo nets behind the rear doors do.
The Safari starts Saturday, April 1, and runs the following week. It would be unlike Jeep to bring just two unique vehicles, so we expect these two to be just the start of the teases. We’ll bring more as they come.
Incidentally, Jeep has brought something unique to the last two Easter Safari gatherings – an electric Wrangler with an honest-to-goodness manual transmission. We still think there will be a market for something like the Magneto, and we hope Jeep brings an updated version again this year.
