The Jeep Meridian, the three-row Compass-based SUV, has been out there for over two years and gross sales have been underwhelming. In the final six months, Meridian wholesales have averaged about 115 items, which is considerably decrease than the Toyota Fortuner (3,013 items), and even under the Skoda Kodiaq (140 items) and MG’s Gloster (139 items). Despite its subtle really feel and feature-rich attraction, one notable absence is a sliding second-row bench seat, a characteristic its rivals provide.

Autocar India has learnt that that the explanation behind that is that the made-in-India Meridian was meant to be exported to the UK. For the UK, Jeep had plans to introduce a plug-in hybrid variant and the house behind the center row was supposed to accommodate the battery pack.

Consequently, there was no house left to combine a sliding mechanism for the reclining second row, which does include 60:40 split-folding and fold-and-tumble features. With the cancellation of export plans, Jeep missed the prospect so as to add this perform, ensuing within the launch with out this characteristic.

Jeep is presently engaged on the Meridian facelift, with a launch slated for this yr. While the up to date mannequin will seemingly embrace ADAS tech, it stays unsure whether or not Jeep will incorporate the sliding perform. 

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