Jaguar is the latest premium brand – others include Porsche, BMW and Mercedes – to give the electric car tar baby a two-armed hug.
Design chief Ian Callum says he has probably worked on his last full internal-combustion car.
“There won’t be another in my life. Everything I do now will have batteries in great abundance — mostly in the floor.”
The British magazine Autocar reports that Jaguar is considering phasing out its conventional vehicles over the next five to seven years and replacing them with electric vehicles.
By that time, the XF and XE sedans will have reached the end of their product cycles. Soon after, the F-Pace and E-Pace will be gone. This would leave Jaguar offering almost nothing but EV models by 2026, with the J-Pace luxury crossover being the only holdout until 2027.
Under this strategy, Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich factory in the U.K. could be retooled as an EV factory, while the Coventry factory could produce the batteries needed for Jaguar’s new all-wheel-drive MLA EV platform.
I weep.
And so, probably, should Callum – and Jaguar.
Because electric Jaguars are going to be the same things – in different packaging – as electric Porsches and electric BMWs.
People may buy them – just as they currently buy Samsungs rather than iPhones – but the Jaguarness will have evaporated, the differences one-vs.-another as superficial as the differences between a Samsung phone and an iPhone.
The difference between an XJS and a 5-Series or an E-Type and 280SL – will be gone, forever.
If this is The Future, count me out.
Electric cars are as exciting as elevators.
. . .
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Ive never driven one but the V-12 had to be impressive
Hi Mark!
The Jaguar V12 was beautiful to look at; also iconoclastic. It was something different – and that made Jaguars special.
When he says he’s worked on the last “full internal combustion engine”, he may well mean they’ll have IC engines along with some sort of hybrid electrification to add power and efficiency like Ferrari and some others. That might not be so bad (except for the additional cost). It may be wishful thinking on my part. As a lifelong gearhead, I find I’m losing interest more and more as they transition to autonomous electric vehicles. Like you, they can count me out.
I got TOO MANY cars I always wanted to get when the inevitable Electric Car Apocalypse hits
I’m hopeful Trump puts a stop to it after the midterms, but I’m not holding my breath either
Hi Zane,
I had hope – in re the “zero emissions” and fuel economy fatwas – when I thought it was mainly CA and the Snowflakes vs. Trump. But now that the car industry – most of it – has “joined hands” with CA, it’s over. Trump isn’t going to win this win.
Which means, we lose.
Do you have any idea why the auto industry, particularly GM is begging the government to get regulated? Is it some kind of anti-competitive nonsense where they have products in the pipeline which would be compliant and want to hurt the competition?
Hi OP,
I have a working theory:
Even if CA (and other states) weren’t pushing for these EV mandates and all the rest, and even assuming Trump rescinded the federal fatwas – especially the 50-plus MPG fatwa – the car industry has (a) already committed tremendous sums of money toward “efficient” designs – this includes EVs – and (b) they are betting that after Trump, the fatwas will be reimposed by the next “Progressive” president/Congress.
My opinion is that there’s no longer any stopping what’s coming. Things will have to run their course, like a bad case of food poisoning…
So, riddle me this
How do they deal with people who have paid off cars or keep buying used (As in pre-’10s)
No,trump cant stop it.its worldwide the electric mandate.
This is prob one of your most depressing articles…. just the other day went and saw a Jag E type with my daughters (4 and 6)…. Who know hardly anything about cars but even they were amazed by the beauty of the engine inside…. sad to realise we will never have another such engine or car….
like you say it will just be iPhone vs samsung in the future…. either will work just fine…. but exactly the same…
Morning, Nasir…
Our job is to preserve the memory – and corrupt the youth! I’m working on my niece…
Jag,thoroughly British in every way. Oh oh, the empire is gone…..along with all the non-competitive crap it produced.
I saw the writing on the wall when Ford bought Jaguar, said nothing would change, that they’d keep the design people on, but they must have kept them in the closet since the XJ6 immediately began to take on a Crown Victoria look at which point everyone sighed a collective sigh, shed a collective tear and looked away as one might do when finding a deceased loved one in bed with an old crackhead. RIP
I can’t read this stuff anymore – too depressing.
If I weren’t allergic and trying to manage my sugars better, I’d get a drink with you as we bemoan whats to come