Jaguar is preparing to launch a large, lavish electric saloon to serve as an indirect replacement for the axed XJ EV, Autocar can reveal.
It was previously understood that Jaguar’s new four-seat grand tourer, launching in 2025, would be followed into dealerships by a pair of luxury crossovers.
But now a source familiar with the new models has told Autocar that while one of the other two cars is indeed a Bentley Bentayga-sized flagship SUV, the other is actually an imposing limousine conceived in the mould of the XJ, albeit heavily redesigned, substantially larger and much more luxurious.
All three cars will sit on the long-wheelbase JEA electric vehicle platform being developed exclusively for use by new-era Jaguar models.
Talking recently to Autocar, JLR CEO Adrian Mardell said the Jaguar brand needed its own architecture: “Otherwise, it doesn’t quite look as potent and exuberant as you would wish it to. This wheelbase and this architecture will deliver the design intent.”
Priced from between £100,000 and £125,000, the three cars will come equipped with four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering and ultra-fast charging capacity that will allow for a 10-80% top-up time of just 13 minutes.
Early details suggest each will produce no less than 450bhp, sprint from 0-62mph in between 3.0sec and 3.8sec, top out at 155mph and offer ranges of at least 385 miles and up to 475 miles.
Before ex-JLR CEO Thierry Bolloré’s Reimagine plan was introduced, Jaguar had been developing an electric XJ that was based on the Range Rover’s MLA platform and originally due for launch by 2022. But the project was scrapped when the car was deemed incompatible with the wider plan for Jaguar.
That car has never been revealed, and Jaguar had given no indication of its performance potential before the programme was halted in 2021.
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Congratulations to Jaguar.
Always one to lead through inovation and design... Bringing the first Luxury Snow Plough to the market is a master stroke.... Climate change affects us all...
Sorry, the front is subjective, but I'm not a fan....
If I was a betting man, I would bet on this being an absolute failure, and that Jaguar will be lucky to survive until the end of the decade, if they survive they may well be sold off to ensure the losses dont drag down Landrover as well. You cant just write off your heritage and customer base as if it never existed and hope to succeed, especially when you have a heritage as rich as Jaguars.
Your bet is safe. The Thierry Bollore plan was always insanity, and it's insanity JLR continued with it after he left. Renault board fired him and now they're making record profits again after rejecting his ideas, ones that JLR are embracing.
But telling 95%+ of your customers to F Off never ends well, and that's what Jaguar are doing. McGovern saying that increasing prices from £30k to £100k won't alienate customers? The management have their heads so far up their own they can't see daylight.
However, they also claim they're aiming to take sales off Bentley. They're going to squeeze 50,000 sales out of the 15,000 customers Bentley has per year. It might just be me, but I find that highly unlikely.
And their marketing is reaching new lows with the run out of both F-Type and the I-Pace. Shockingly bad that if you didn't know it was a car they're advertising you'd have thought it some art house project from a failing art student. Hardly show the product and give no reason why you'd want to buy a Jaguar at all. Incredibly inept.
That's the level of incompetence we're seeing from JLR management right now. They're just too reliant upon Range Rover selling they can't see even it needs a serious update in technology. Just look at the X range from BMW and it's generations ahead. Every other marque is walking their cars through a hybrid period, something that JLR needs to do. Not killing off every car that Jaguar has.
Thierry Bollore definitely is to blame, but so is the management for letting him and continuing to follow such a terminal plan. It goes nowhere but the demise of Jaguar.