Jaguar I-PACE to be killed off in 2025

The pioneering Jaguar I-PACE battery-electric SUV and the combustion-engined E-PACE, F-PACE, XE, XF and sporty F-TYPE will all be culled in 2025 as part of plans to transition the leaping cat from premium to a fully-fledged luxury brand selling only EVs.

The I-PACE, which was launched in Europe in 2018, had been in line to get one last comprehensive makeover to prolong its lifespan, but now JLR CEO Adrian Mardell has told British outlet Autocar that it too will be killed off by mid-decade.

No official timings have been released yet, but Jaguar has revealed its first next-generation model will be shown in late 2024 ahead of its launch in 2025.

All future Jaguar models will be built on the car-maker’s advanced JEA electric architecture that has been specifically created for battery-electric vehicles.

“We don’t want the product to be out of the market for too long, particularly the electrified one [I-PACE],” Mardell said.

“Now we’re waiting for the confidence in JEA. Right now, people are telling me it’s going to be in the first half of 2025. That’s just under two years away. I’d be more confident in that response when we’re nine to 12 months away.

“So we’ve got time – we’ve got nine to 12 months – to work through these decisions.”

Revealing that the I-PACE is sold mainly in the UK and mainland Europe to help ensure Jaguar is compliant with emissions targets, Mardell said the knowledge accrued while developing the original all-electric SUV had fed back into the creation of the next-generation EVs.

Once relaunched, Mardell said that the number of cars he expects to sell monthly will actually fall from 5000 per month to 4000 globally.

Despite the drop-off in volume, it’s thought the transactional price per unit will considerably rise, including the profit-per-car.

Profitability might have been enhanced further if, instead of going ahead and developing the JEA platform Jaguar could have used the current MLA architecture.

But Mardell says that existing platform was ruled out because the Range Rover underpinnings didn’t provide for the “exuberant” proportions needed for future Jaguars, including a stretched wheelbase.

“The wheelbase on these vehicles and this architecture will be longer. Then you can get the beautiful flows that you need from the vehicle,” he said.

There’s no word on when Jaguar’s future design language will be fully unveiled, but Mardell said it will be worth the wait: “The design language on them is just gorgeous”.

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