Jaguar XJ to die this July ahead of replacement EV's launch

Jaguar has announced it will kill off the current Jaguar XJ this July, paving the way for an all-new pure-electric flagship in 2020.

Following a production run of 10 years, the last current-generation Jaguar XJ will roll off the Castle Bromwich assembly line near Birmingham in the UK on July 5, after a total of 122,330 cars were made.

That number might sound impressive for a large luxurious limousine, but they pale in significance beside the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which has found more than 400,000 homes in less than five years.

The eighth-generation Jaguar XJ will go down in history as the car that dared to abandon the former model's retro-inspired design cues for something more modern – an approach that will be followed by its successor.

Last year marked half a century since the original Jaguar XJ was launched back in 1968, and the British car-maker chose to celebrate its 50th birthday by rolling out the special XJ 50 anniversary limited-run special.

Despite calling time on the current generation, Jaguar's famous XJ nameplate is almost certain to live on as battery-powered limo.

Set to challenge both the latest BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class for outright luxury, the XJ's zero-emissions replacement will also face new, more sporty competition from the forthcoming Porsche Taycan.

Helping lower the cost of its development, the new XJ is likely to share both the Jaguar I-PACE's chassis architecture and most of its pure-electric powertrain.

Expect far more power and torque than the 294kW and 696Nm outputs of the zero-emission SUV.

That should make the plug-in XJ substantially quicker than the mighty supercharged 5.0-litre V8-powered XJ575, which generated 423kW/700Nm and could hit 100km/h in just 4.4 seconds before topping out at 300km/h.