Production of the new Jeep Cherokee in China will start in 2015, a full year later than announced earlier. The Jeep Cherokee will be made in China by the Guangzhou-Fiat joint venture that also makes the Fiat Viaggio, the sister-car of the Dodge Dart.

The Jeep Cherokee will be imported into China until the 2015 local production starts. However, the imported Cherokee is delayed as well, earlier on it was announced for September but now we hear it won’t make it to China until early 2014. Price of the imported Cherokee will start around 350.000 yuan or 57.000 USD. Price of the locally made Cherokee will start around 300.000 yuan or 49.000 USD. Those who can wait will get it cheap…

China has a long history with the Cherokee. The good old Jeep Cherokee XJ was made in China from 1984 until 2009 by the Beijing-Jeep joint venture, and Beijing auto still makes a semi-legal clone called the Beijing Auto Works Knight S12. The Jeep Liberty was never produced in China although the joint venture considered a pickup truck variant of the Liberty back in 2008.