Jaguar Land Rover to go it alone with new EV platform

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has ended its search to find an architecture to underpin all of its future electric vehicles, instead deciding to go it alone and develop its own dedicated EV platform in-house.

Originally, as part of JLR's Reimagine plan, CEO Thierry Bollore said the British car-making group would buy-in a suitable architecture from a rival, but in a call to investors overnight he revealed the search was over and work had already begun to develop an EV platform in-house.

According to Bollore, the biggest issue with buying an off-the-shelf platform is that it would not accommodate the diverse design proportions and capabilities required by JLR brands.

The issue is that the platform would need to form the basis of both sleek and stylish Jaguars and boxier, mud-loving Land Rovers and Range Rovers.

“Concerning the new Jaguar, we're making unique proportion a priority. That’s the reason why at the moment we do it by ourselves,” Bollore told JLR stakeholders. 

Announcing work had already begun on the Panthera (named after the big cat genus) family of platforms, the JLR boss said that taking development of the new architecture back in-house would save money as the business moved to a "lower-volume, higher-value future".

Making your own architecture also provides JLR with more autonomy when it comes to choosing batteries, electric motors and even software, allowing it to produce "distinct cars with no overlap".

Helping it fund the development of the new underpinnings, JLR has been given a £500 million ($A950m) state-backed loan from the British government.

Under Bollore's dramatic revival plans, JLR will invest £2.5-3.0 billion ($A4.8-5.7b) annually in pure-electric models between now and 2026.

The big investment plan follows a dismal sales performance by JLR last year, when the group recorded a £9 million ($A17.1m) loss in the last quarter – compared with a £439 million ($A836m) profit in the same quarter of 2020.

JLR said the losses were a result of being particularly prone to the global semi-conductor shortages.