Jaguar’s new electric vehicle platform will be built in-house, the company has said, giving new details of its shift to an all-electric line-up from 2025 under Jaguar Land Rover’s Reimagine plan.
JLR CEO Thierry Bolloré initially said the company would look externally for an EV platform suitable enough to underpin a range of upmarket electric Jaguars, but JLR is now working on its own platform, Bolloré told investors in a call on Monday.
Bolloré said that JLR cars, including Jaguars, need a platform that combines design proportions and capabilities not offered by other car makers, citing both the MLA High platform underpinning the new Range Rover and the future EMA platform for smaller Land Rovers.
“Concerning the new Jaguar, we're making unique proportion a priority. That’s the reason why at the moment we do it by ourselves,” Bollore said.
The new platform is called Panthera, chief financial officer Adrian Mardell said on the call. Panthera is the scientific name for the genus of big cats that includes jaguars, tigers, lions and leopards.
JLR decision to go it alone on the Jaguar platform rather than save money on development by buying in a platform is likely to be related to JLR’s chief designer Gerry McGovern’s requirement that the cars should look unique as the company takes the brand more towards Bentley territory in terms of pricing.
On the investor call, Bolloré said JLR is looking at “significantly” commonalising elements across all future JLR platform as it moves to a lower-volume, higher-value future. “
The new control points, the batteries, the electric motors, the software - on-board, off-board - all that is creating real scale,” he said.
“The proportions are crucial to get what we want from Jaguar,” Bolloré told Autocar last year. “The platform is a consequence of proportions we’ve decided on. They’re absolutely bespoke.”
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He should have done this from the start, not fished around ignominiously for a 'borrowed' platform! He has the current i-Pace and the killed-at-birth XJ platforms with which to work -get on with it, Monsieur!
This Jaguar strategy does not make sense at all
He also needs to know that the quality of the product needs to be way ahead of where it is at the moment.
Not only is this an admission that they haven't been very successful at what they are allegedly supposed to be good at, it's a massive gamble expecting to improve on that inadequate position and be as good as a premium brand that's already way better than you.
And as the present range gets phased out over time and the new more premium range happens not to cut it, where's the fall back?
May be the fall back is the i pace.