Prior Convictions: Jaguar's electric project
There's a lot to be said for SVO's idea of a 600hp XE. But Jaguar has far more radical plans on its mind
This week I've been driving a Jaguar XE SV Project 8. It's the first time PH has had a go in it on the road in the UK and it's the first time I've had a go at all. It was ostensibly for a big group feature the other mag I work on it feels like a very compelling piece of kit. Certainly the rawest Jaguar in recent history. It feels more like a Group 44 XJS than it does a regular XE.
It's also a car, as it turns out, that divides opinion a bit like a BMW M4 GTS, which I think is terrific and a lot of other people do not. As with the GTS the Project 8 gets suspension you can adjust should you be prepared to get busy in the wheelarches. And as with the M4 GTS, I quite liked it, although not as much as that BMW.
In a roadgoing setup it ain't ever exactly compliant, but body control is very good and it has that racy, keyed-in feel. The steering's a bit light, lacking feedback, but accurate. And the four-wheel drive system feels fairly rear-biased. The gearshift on the 8-spd auto is curiously sluggish, but all of its attributes the character and response of the 600hp supercharged V8 is the standout feature. By a mile. 'Cor', you think, 'they don't make 'em like this any more'.
And then you read that it's quite possible that might be all-too literal, on account of the fact that Jaguar is considering moving its range to pure electric power. No decision has been taken, but you can see where the thoughts come from: Jaguar's total volume is looking like being 175,000 cars this year and, even with economies of scale allowed by some platform and architecture sharing with Land Rover, that's not a great deal to be getting on with. There's considerably less folly to the £150,000 Project 8 than there was a V8-powered Rover 75, but there is a similar feeling that it doesn't exactly represent what the XE range stands for.
What of Jaguar Land Rover's Special Vehicle Operations, responsible for the Project 8, should things go electric? Presumably they'd still busy themselves fitting massive V8 engines to SUVs, for those who live in wide open areas, like the middle east, the broad landscapes of the US, and South Kensington. But they can't leave it there.
So they'd have to turn their hand to electric cars too. Just as it's possible to tune up internal combustion vehicles, it's possible to do EVs. There's a new Jaguar one-make racing series, the i-Pace e-Trophy, where the i-Pace's power level hasn't been turned up from its 400hp, but the aero is massively revised and there's been a deal of lightweighting.
When it comes to the race car's design diverging to the road car, Jaguar's design studio director Wayne Burgess says that SVO would like to use "as much as we can get away with". And just as there are similar architectures and modular design elements with internal combustion engines, so there are with electric motors, too. The limiting factors are battery energy and weight - the pack on an i-Pace weighs something like 610kg.
And then you get back into a Project 8 and rev it out and think, 'sure, an i-Pace or i-Whatever SVR will be great, I've no doubt'. But not just yet, eh?
Hopefully the switch from ICE would also help their, er, unfortunate reputation on reliability too...?
http://carsalesbase.com/us-car-sales-data/jaguar/
Tesla shifted 50k last year - and just over that in the last two months alone, because the Model 3 is finally starting to come off the lines.
http://carsalesbase.com/us-car-sales-data/tesla/
If they can keep that rate up, that's 300k cars/year.
Merc shift 370k cars/year in the US, though, year-in-year-out, and a couple of thousand more than Tesla in the last two months.
http://carsalesbase.com/us-car-sales-data/mercedes...
So, yes, JLR could go electric imo, even for their 4x4 line!
So, yes, JLR could go electric imo, even for their 4x4 line!
Chaps don’t typically buy an M3 or 911 for the wife to use during the week on domestic chores but for their sole use.
My wife would like an SUV as her next car, which makes perfect sense. I will purchase a performance model so that I can enjoy it when I drive it but that would maybe be once or twice/month.
What we are probably seeing is that SUVs tend to be shared family cars carrying out a multiple of roles whereas the more dedicated performance cars less so.
I think the future (whether we like it or not) is smaller (Golf sized) cars with good/better/best performance options and styling from electric motors.
Can somebody round up Richard Meaden, Jethro Bovingdon, Henry Catchpole, John Barker and David Vivian from their current moto-journo Outer Limits limbo and stick them in PH please to compliment the good writers there currently?
That would give PH good words and pictures. At this rate Matt Watson on CarWow will be the new Ljk Setright.
In hindsight I think Harry Metcalfe needs to buy PH as a follow up for helping starting EVO.......
Jaguar needs to be daring again, recover its mojo and if going electric helps with that then I'm all for it. But for goodness sake, make the Brand desirable again! In the future, people will remember Jaguar's greatest modern hits as XJR, F-Type, XK, even old XFR, Project 7/8. No one will recall F-Pace, E-Pace, XE or XF. The crossovers may be selling but they are hardly lusted after, Jaguar would do well to remember the former. Make cars that sell yes, but ensure you have halo cars in the range too.
I test drove an E-Pace the other week. Totally uninteresting and forgettable, and I said that when I handed the key back, in response to "How was it?"
The interior quality, the weight; clearly an evoque in a new frock and it felt like 2010 era tech.
Basically, Jaguar is a failing business. Sales of the core saloons (XE/XF/XJ) aren't enough to keep the factory running more than three days a week, let alone generate the investment to replace them. The F-Pace isn't even holding up that well, and the E-Pace isn't that profitable. The only bright spot is the electric I-Pace, although that's also not so profitable.
So, they're at a crossroads; a new direction is needed. An all-electric approach is attractive; it probably means less investment than a new range of combustion engines, and Tesla has shown you can construct a range of models at different price points with minimal mechanical differentiation, just different battery capacities. They already have an electric drivetrain in the I-Pace, which could adapt to a range of vehicles.
To me it's a risky strategy. It's uncertain how electric cars will take off over the next 5-10 years, and how the charging infrastructure will co-evolve to support their uptake. If there's a rash of stories of Jaguar buyers spending an hour in a queue, not for the Dartford Crossing but for a charger; if people are getting stranded because of chargers failing, then buyers could turn against them.
Even assuming (as I do) that electric cars will break out, the future competitive landscape is uncertain. Kia and Hyundai have £30k, 300-mile electric cars launching now. VW group are throwing their considerable engineering capabilities full-tilt into electric cars, with the intensity of a reformed sinner. Tesla have established themselves as the electric car company, and have the Model 3 rolling out. Any projections Jaguar make of selling 300k electric cars a year are even more of a finger in the air than such numbers ordinarily are, in a volatile and changing market.
Meanwhile, mega-companies like VW will engineer models with a full range of petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric drivetrains, which is clearly a safer approach. But as a smaller player with less money, it's arguable that it makes sense for Jag to bet fully on a single approach and hope for the best.
Jaguar is a brand of Jaguar Land Rover.
Jaguar Land Rover is doing OK. Their 2017 full year profits were £1.5bn (a slight drop on the previous year), on revenue of £26bn (up on the previous year)
The business is not working as it is and EVs are deemed to be the way we are to be heading so is it madness to give the brand one last roll of the dice by hurling it into the new world. Eapeciallys as such a model would compliment the LR side which is going to be mostly hybrid.
If it’s the best way to keep the marque going in the 21sr century then it gets my vote.
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