Jaguar Land Rover bets $24 billion on EVs to replace diesel

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced it will invest an incredible £13.5 billion ($A24b) over the next three years to ensure that it will be capable of offering an electrified version of every model it offers.

The huge investment -- more than 26 per cent more than the car-maker made over the last few years -- comes despite a slump in sales and revenues, partly blamed on reduced demand for diesel vehicles in Europe.

In a call on Monday to investors, reported by Automotive News, JLR admitted that both its margins and profits were "well below" internal targets and that after the investment it would lead to "negative cash flow".

In the call, JLR announced that by 2025 it would offer three powertrains on every model it makes -- a traditional fossil-fuel engine, a hybrid and a pure-electric powertrain, although the latter will only be offered if there's customer demand.

The news that JLR will significantly ramp up its investment in electrified powertrains, despite a drop in sales, comes weeks after Jaguar's pure-electric I-PACE SUV first went on sale.

The rapid response from the British car-maker is thought to address concerns that JLR was in a perilous position amid the backlash against diesel following the Volkswagen Group's emissions scandal.

In the fourth quarter of 2017 nearly 90 per cent of all Jaguar and Land Rover models were diesel-powered -- well above the industry standard.

As part of the plan to switch to electrified powertrains all six of JLR's UK manufacturing facilities will be retooled to produce hybrid and pure-electric vehicles.

JLR announced back in 2017 that from 2020 every vehicle it launches would come with an electrified powertrain, suggesting it was working on producing more hybrids. Monday's investors call suggests both Jaguar and Land Rover will be going far further than that, investing heavily in pure-electric powertrains.

As well as the powertrain announcement, JLR also confirmed it will open an engineering hub in Manchester in northern England that would also develop software and IT solutions.