Flagship J-PACE SUV dead as Jaguar gambles future on EVs

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has reportedly killed off plans to launch its flagship 2021 Jaguar J-PACE just months before the large SUV was expected to be unveiled.

Created to rival luxurious SUVs like the BMW X7, Mercedes-Benz GLS and Audi Q7, the 2021 Jaguar J-PACE was understood to have been developed alongside the all-new fifth-generation Range Rover, with the pair sharing JLR's next-generation Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA).

However, the Jaguar J-PACE is believed to have been even longer than the Range Rover and offer three rows of seats.

Mirroring a similar decision to can the all-electric Jaguar XJ, it's thought a variety of issues were at play in the decision to scrap the J-PACE, including its platform and production base.

Last week, JLR boss Thierry Bollore declared that Jaguar would fully transition to a pure-electric brand by 2025 and, as part of those plans, all future Jaguar models would be based on its all-new EMA architecture that has been developed specifically for EVs.

Crucially, all Jaguar production will move to JLR's Halewood plant that currently makes the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport.

Jaguar's new production base will be retooled for EMA-underpinned vehicles while the Castle Bromwich factory that was tipped to manufacture both the new XJ and J-PACE will be repurposed, possibly as a battery-making plant in the future.

With a lack of production capacity elsewhere, and rumours of tension within JLR senior ranks that the Jaguar J-PACE could steal sales from the higher-priced Range Rover, the flagship SUV program was abandoned at a late stage.

It's not known if the Jaguar J-PACE will return in some form on the EMA underpinnings, but if it does it is expected to be positioned further away from the Range Rover.

According to Automotive News, the cancellation of yet another core Jaguar model at such a late stage has triggered concern not only within Jaguar but its global dealers as the car-maker prepares to reinvent itself with no new product to offer.

Question marks already hang over the slow-selling Jaguar XE, XF and E-PACE SUV, with some insiders feeling that Jaguar could implode without a strong line-up to offer customers.

Others speaking to the newswire suggest that as well as an EV brand, JLR has ambitious plans to transform the car-maker into a Bentley or Aston Martin rival.

But, again, with no models rumoured to be in the pipeline, it's unclear how this will happen.

Attempting to address the rumours, JLR spokesman Stuart Schorr said: "By the middle of the decade, Jaguar will have undergone a renaissance to emerge as a pure-electric luxury brand with a dramatically beautiful new portfolio of emotionally engaging designs and pioneering next-generation technologies.

He added: “For Jaguar, we will now continue to work, including with our retailers, to fully prepare for that next generation of the brand, while we also go to market with the current new Jaguar line-up to 2025."

According to reports, Bollore is pinning the brand's renaissance on chief creative officer Gerry McGovern, who will dictate the next design direction of the famous British brand.

McGovern, the former design tsar at Land Rover, is believed to have been tasked with creating concepts that maximise the capabilities of the EMA platform, which should allow for radical redesigns and/or far better packaging than any previous Jaguar or Land Rover.

Bollore has also declared himself a big fan of the current Jaguar I-PACE, suggesting there was still plenty of potential in the battery-powered crossover.

Those remarks could suggest both a reskin and big tech upgrade is due for Jag's only EV.

Last year, Jaguar sold just 102,494 vehicles worldwide – a deep 36.5 per cent decline over 2019. Both the global pandemic and Brexit played a significant role in the car-maker’s downturn, but over the same period Land Rover shifted a far more impressive 323,480 vehicles – 18.3 per cent down year-on-year.