LA MOTOR SHOW: Jaguar preparing electric onslaught
New I-PACE Concept provides a portent to Jaguar’s future model strategyJaguar has indicated its ground-breaking I-PACE Concept is just the beginning of a bigger electric revolution.
The British car maker has promised seismic movement in the electric car space this week, first by releasing a production version of the I-PACE in the second half of 2018 before following up with similarly-minded projects thereafter.
Plug-in hybrid projects are also on THE drawing board as Jaguar Land Rover attempts to fit with changing consumer tastes.
Senior personnel were not willing to nominate what shape or genre the follow-up models would adhere to at the I-PACE reveal in California, but it seemed clear that SUVs are front of mind.
“We chose an SUV because we realise this is exactly what people want. But also we have a challenge with the batteries – and it’s much easier to package the batteries to sit under the car in an SUV than in a sedan or a sports car,” Jaguar’s chief designer Ian Callum said.
“We chose to do an SUV for good marketing and financial reasons. Our biggest selling car is the F-Pace, by far.
“We’ve now got a full electric platform dedicated to electric cars,” Callum added.
The new I-PACE is built on scalable electric architecture that can stretch up to full Range Rover size and down to a smaller sedan or SUV.
In addition, Callum said that Jaguar was working on plug-in hybrid derivatives to accompany pure EV models.
“We will do plug in hybrids that will be more suited to our conventional platforms, but we wanted to go all-electric first. It was fitting to the brand.”
Jaguar vehicle line director Ian Hoban said that, from an engineering perspective, the I-PACE platform lent itself to more derivatives.
“We could easily [create more variants on this platform],” he said.
“It’s here to stay, clearly. In the last 12 months the rate of adoption is exponential and that’s here to stay.”
Callum said that changing consumer tastes had fast-forwarded Jaguar’s entry into the SUV category, a factor that would contribute to more investment.
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