Jaguar’s Future Plans Revealed 9

29th June - Three new high-luxury, highpriced SUVs look set to lead Jaguar’s allelectric push upmarket, according to Autocar. British magazine Autocar reports three large SUVs will lead the reinvention of Jaguar in 2025, which has been confirmed to see it shift from a BMW or Audi competitor, to a maker of lowervolume, more exclusive cars akin to Bentley. All three models – built in Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull plant – will share a new electric-only platform known as Panthera, with “similar mechanical packages”, and prices from $AU140,000, to as much as $AU350,000. There won’t be successors to the E-Pace and F-Pace; instead, the smallest model in the new range is said to be sized similarly to a Porsche Taycan wagon, at just under five metres long, and over two metres wide. The Autocar report specifically references the low-riding Taycan Sport Turismo wagon – however all three new Jaguars are expected to take the form of more conventional ‘crossover’ SUVs. Three-door and five-door versions of the smallest new Jaguar SUV will be offered – though positioned as standalone models – with a choice of single-motor, rear-wheel-drive and dual-motor, allwheel-drive powertrains. Prices for these models will reportedly start from $AU140,000 to $AU160,000 – equivalent to a top-of-the-range I-Pace of today, at about $170,000 driveaway in Australia – and span beyond $AU210,000. According to Autocar, the flagship Jaguar will be a larger SUV with a 200mmlonger wheelbase, standard dual-motor all-wheel drive and “luxurious rear cabin appointment and space” aimed at the US and Chinese markets. The publication says this model will cost from $AU210,000) – starting where the smaller car’s range ends – and that Jaguar hopes it “can justify prices approaching $AU350,000 with full equipment and the SVR treatment.” Jaguar is said to be targeting about 50,000 sales per year, according to Autocar – on par with the full-size Range Rover before the pandemic, albeit with higher profit margins on the new Jaguar cars. Autocar says the first of the new Jaguars will be previewed by a concept in 2024 – as hinted at by JLR vehicles boss Nick Collins in a separate interview – before customer deliveries commence in 2025. “In 2024, we will show the world what a new Jaguar will be like; in 2025, we will deliver cars to customers. We’re still working on options for communicating and marketing the vehicles. We have plenty of ideas, but we haven’t yet decided which way to go,” Collins said. The Panthera platform underpinning the new Jaguar models – developed by JLR and Austrian engineering giant Magna – will be on the “technical cutting edge”, Autocar says, with likely 800-volt fast charging, cloud connectivity and plenty of processing power. The UK outlet says “it seems likely” the new vehicles will use a range of sustainable materials that avoid the use of oil derivatives – with recycled fabrics for the carpet, and recycled aluminium for the platform suggested as examples. Jaguar Land Rover recently signed a deal with US computing giant NVIDIA to power the next generation of its autonomous driving technology, with “significant” use of connected cloud technology. While a final decision on where the cars will be built has not been made, Autocar suggests an expansion of the current Solihull, UK factory home to the current Jaguar F-Pace, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar and full-size Range Rover. The arrival of the new Jaguar luxury electric cars in 2025 will spell the end of the current range, comprising the XE and XF sedans, E-Pace, F-Pace and I-Pace SUVs, and the F-Type V8 sports car. .

Information for this story from Drive Australia and Autocar.

Autocar UK concept mock-up. The proposed smaller model Jaguar SUV is claimed by Autocar to be Porsche Taycan size and cost AU140k - $AU160k.