Who’d have thought Cadillac and Jaguar would have so much in common? Once paramount luxury brands that lost their respective ways around the same time, floundered with one not-good-enough product after another, and have several failed reboots on their résumés. Given one last chance by their parent companies to get it together, both committed to all-electric lineups. And both have made it clear they’re targeting the super-luxe demo, with Bentley the marque that always comes up as the hare in the distance. Cadillac appears to have made an outstanding shot off the line, its Lyriq bringing home reviews worthy of long-ago Cadillac, the Celestiq promising everything we screamed for from Cadillac concepts like the Escala and Ciel. We have two more years to wait for what Jaguar’s bringing, the English automaker not expected to show near-production concepts of it coming lineup until a “globally significant” auto show that year.
Autocar calims to have a few more details out of Jaguar HQ about what’s to come. The product lineup has been guesswork to now. Autocar says it’s going to be “a trio of … electric sports crossovers.” If that’s the case, that means the F-Type puts an end to Jaguar’s run of sporty, luxurious coupes — for a spell, at least. According to the report, the new range starts with a model around the size of the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo wagon, which is an inch shorter than a Cadillac Lyriq. Two- and four-door variants will offer single- and dual-motor powertrains. Pricing is expected to begin in the £80,000 ($96,406 U.S.) to £90,000 ($108,457 U.S.) bracket, which would make this EV the highest starting price for any entry-level production Jaguar in maybe ever. Right now, the I-Pace starts at £66,350 ($79,957 U.S.), the F-Pace at £46,250. The most expensive model among the range is the F-Pace SVR at £81,150 ($97,792 U.S.). It’s thought the upper end of the lower-end EV could “push prices to £120,000” ($144,610 U.S.) before getting to the SVR trims.
There’s no info on the middle sibling. The flagship is anticipated to start around £120,000. Two motors and all-wheel-drive would be the default powertrain, prices hitting £200,000 ($241,016 U.S.) for SVR models.
The aim is to earn comfortable profit selling no more than 60,000 vehicles globally per year. Automotive News said Jaguar sold 86,270 units around the world in 2021, down 16% on 2020 in part because the brand suffered badly with supply chain issues, JLR prioritizing Land Rover products in the crunch. AN reported JLR had an order log of 154,000 Land Rover and Jaguar models at the time.
Whatever kinds of Jaguars open the battery-electric account, they’ll be built on the firm’s new Panthera platform. The automaker worked with Magna, which builds the I-Pace in Austria, on the Panthera platform, and is working with chip maker Nvidia on integrating the maximum processing power into Jaguar’s EVA electric platform. The final products are supposed to possess 800-volt architectures, tons of cloud computing power, and plenty of autonomous driving capability.
Demonstrating one analyst’s assessment that “premiumness [is] indivisible from greenness,” engineers and designers have focused on maximizing sustainable content. The platform will incorporate recycled aluminum, the “Carpets made from wool, silk and recycled fabrics,” plus “ceramics, stone and glass trimming.”
Prototypes will hit the roads in the next couple of months wearing Range Rover Sport bodywork. JLR vehicle boss Nick Collins told Autocar about the coming designs, “We’ve signed off the whole portfolio. We’re in the final maturation phase, getting the cars ready for production by dealing with production surfacing and practical stuff like aerodynamics and cooling.” The two-year wait to see the production sheetmetal is because CEO Thierry Bollore and group creative director Gerry McGovern want “something great to show.”
Until then, everyone must make do with special editions of current Jaguars. Collins said designers are putting together more specials like the F-Pace SVR Edition 1988 (pictured), “including with the XF and XE, which will be back soon,” as well as a 75th anniversary celebration focused on the F-Type.
