Designing Jeep for a new era of overseas conquests

FUJISAWA, Japan -- Jeep executives are fond of noting that the brand, perhaps the most American of American marques, wasn't originally built for the home market. Back in 1941, the progenitor was bound for battlefields in Europe and the Pacific.

These days, Jeep is busy with overseas conquests of a different kind. Global sales have tripled since 2009, and booming business outside North America accounts for a cool third of that volume.

Indeed, the new compact Renegade is the first Jeep designed expressly for the international market. But, as shown by Cadillac's tepid reception outside the U.S., all-American designs sometimes get lost in translation when sold overseas.

It's a balancing act for the design team at Jeep. They must preserve the 4x4 brand's rugged American DNA while offering designs that click with the diverse tastes of buyers from Boston to Beijing to Berlin.

"That's something that we've been spinning our heads over for quite a bit," said Klaus Busse, 45, vice president for interior design at Jeep manufacturer Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

"We're walking a very fine line."

Getting the equation right never has been more important as FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne banks on record sales of Jeep Wranglers, Cherokees and Renegades to ignite an explosion of global growth.

Global Jeep sales surged to 1.02 million vehicles in 2014 from just 337,700 in the recession year of 2009. Outside North America, sales grew to 324,671 from 106,015 in that period, with key markets including China, Italy, Australia, Brazil, Germany and Japan.

Busse says Jeep is already a global brand with a "very strong American root." The key is tapping the American spirit the way brands such as Coca-Cola or Levi's jeans do, he said.

"We look at the American soul. The American dream has a lot of cachet around the world. I travel the globe every year, and wherever I go, people love America," Busse said this month at a Japan-market launch event for the Renegade outside Tokyo. "We don't go to the drawing board saying we're going to do a piece of American design. We're going to do a piece of American culture."

Ford Motor Co. was a forerunner in tweaking time-tested design to cast a wider global net -- with the Mustang no less.

The Mustang's sixth-generation overhaul for the 2015 model year targeted a world audience with a lower, wider and sleeker look. It still got the same bold shoulders and front end. But for global tastes, it also got an independent rear suspension, beefed-up brakes and paddle shifters.

That blend worked. But finding the balance isn't always easy.

"If American design can be construed as an asset, that may be a viable strategy. But ... it would appear that the car manufacturers are leaning more and more to global acceptance rather than global polarization," said John Manoogian, a professor of automotive design at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and a former General Motors designer.

"There are certainly exceptions, but the trend appears to be fitting in rather than standing out," he said.

The Renegade will be a big test of the formula.

The boxy, pint-sized runabout is the first Jeep engineered to fit a global production footprint. It is manufactured in Italy and Brazil, not the U.S. Japan is the first Asian nation to get it for a reason: Jeep is the best-selling American brand in this notoriously finicky market. And Japan is the world's No. 6 market worldwide for the iconic Jeep Wrangler.

Jeep sales in Japan are still modest. But they surged more than sixfold to 6,840 last year from 1,027 in 2009.

Busse said his team didn't change a thing to bend the Renegade to global tastes. It still has the seven-slot grille, the round headlamps, the short front and rear overhangs. The X motif emblazoned inside and out evokes U.S. military jerrycans from World War II. And trapezoidal wheel arches complete the look.

"Did we design the vehicle any different than we would have designed it solely for the U.S.? We did not," Busse said. "We wanted to design an American Jeep that had that cachet around the world. It's truly what we think a Jeep should be."

Still, the Renegade sports many features that make it especially customer-friendly in overseas markets such as Japan.

The small footprint, smart packaging and good fuel economy are top-selling attributes outside America. And the bright colors and fun styling imbue a "cute" factor the Japanese can't resist.

Indeed, its arrival in Japan this month follows the release of the Suzuki Hustler. That micromini SUV bears a passing resemblance to the larger Renegade and is a hot seller in Japan.

"I don't really think of it as an American design, because of the small size. It's just right for Japan," said Nori Kurihara, a former Ford designer who now runs his own contract design studio, Nori Inc., and is director of Japan's Car Design Academy. The looks are rugged enough to appeal to men yet compact and inviting enough to win over women, he said.

"The range of bright colors is very good, too," Kurihara said.

The nameplate should power Jeep to its sixth-straight year of sales growth in Japan this year, predicts Pontus Häggström, CEO of FCA Japan: "We should get a good kick out of the Renegade."

The Renegade also is expected to go on sale in China. There, it could hit a sweet spot for compact crossovers, just about the only segment holding firm as the world's biggest market wilts.

Jeep's international reach is aided by new production sites. A new assembly plant in China is scheduled to begin producing the Cherokee by year's end and will add two nameplates next year.

China is already Jeep's No. 2 market outside the U.S.

In July, FCA said it planned to build its fourth factory outside the U.S., in Ranjangaon, India. That plant, a joint venture with Tata Motors, will start producing a Jeep vehicle in the second quarter of 2017.

Meanwhile, the integration of Fiat and Chrysler allows Jeep to leverage Fiat's long-established sales network in new markets.

But why does Jeep's design fly abroad, while others' fizzle?

Part of the success undoubtedly stems from Jeep's position as a performance leader in its segment. Its four-wheel-drive lineup has the off-road chops to back up its rugged profile.

Luxury marques such as Cadillac and Lincoln, while oozing unmistakably American auras, don't always muster the street cred wielded by German rivals such as BMW, critics say.

Their styling was stymied by stilted branding, Manoogian said.

"The Renegade does venture further from the true Jeep brand promise, in terms of design execution. The design will appeal to a wider audience and is less polarizing," Manoogian said.

"But remember, the Jeep brand stands for authenticity and function. As long as the potential audience reads that into the design, the Renegade should not have any problems."

Busse doesn't expect any, either.

"I believe there's a lot of love for Jeep around the world," the design chief said. "I see how fast we're growing."