Jaguar plans to become an all-electric brand after 2025

The British luxury brand Jaguar is planning a total restoration. From 2025 there will only be fully electric drives and the design will also be radically revised.

The future of Jaguar should be exciting. By 2025, the British luxury brand wants to have completely converted its portfolio to fully electric models. The motto of the always troubled subsidiary of the Indian Tata group is: Everything has to go, everything has to be different. As you can hear, except for the electric I-Pace, none of the current models will have a direct successor.

In the future, Jaguar will leave SUVs and crossovers to the sister brand Land Rover. The information about the new design sounds spectacular. The upcoming Jaguars should be particularly cool and dynamic, luxurious, stylish, and unique, and with materials of the highest quality. Just no more classic limousines. Yes, quite traditional, but also something completely new. Tomorrow’s luxury cars share the core of the brand but don’t imitate anything. Round, square, flat, half-height – if you ask for details, that responsible switch to low voltage.

One thing is certain: Jaguar is completely reinventing itself. The “Reimagine” strategy, which was initiated by Thierry Bolloré, Jaguar Land Rover boss who has since left the company, is as stringent as it is ambitious. By 2030, JLR wants to be 54 percent climate-neutral. Then 100 percent by 2039. And throughout the supply chain. From raw materials to production, interior materials to sales and service. Francois Dossa, Group Director of Strategy and Sustainability, promises that even the 12,000 employees in Gaydon will then be transported to the plant by e-bus in a CO2-neutral manner.

Formula E is set to play a key role in the transformation. The Brits have decided to stay involved in the electric racing series for another four years and are already entering their ninth season in Mexico City in January.

An expensive laboratory: the manufacturer pays 25 million euros for two years, and another 13 million euros for the team. This is now called Jaguar TCS Racing. TCS stands for Tata Consultancy Services, the future title sponsor of the reigning runner-up.

Learning from Formula E

At the presentation of the new I-Type 6 racing car in London, Jaguar’s new head of development, Thomas Müller, left no doubt about the sense of the investments: “We learn a lot in Formula E,” says the former Audi man, “and everything goes directly into the development of our road models”. “Race to innovate” or “Race to the road” is what they call it at Jaguar.

The technology of the 350 kW/475 hp generation 3 cars, which can reach speeds of up to 320 km/h, is said to be very closely linked to the future Panthere platform, which is currently being developed exclusively for upcoming Jaguar models with the help of Magna. Common platforms with Land Rover should no longer exist.

Whereby the transfers from the racer to the series are likely to be rather manageable. Because to save costs, all teams in Formula E compete with a standard chassis, batteries and large parts of the technology are also the same. Williams supplies most of the parts such as electric motors, inverters, transmissions, cooling systems, and components for the rear wheel suspension. But batteries, inverters, and gearboxes in particular will be sourced from other manufacturers by Jaguar for its road models.

Technically particularly interesting about the new, 850-kilo racing car is the braking energy recovery. It is so powerful that no hydraulic rear brakes need to be installed. Transferring this technology to series production is likely to be difficult. Experience with fast charging, the stress test for batteries under extreme conditions, and the further development of hardware and software technologies remain as synergies.

As a partner for semiconductors, Wolfspeed is new to Formula E. JLR has just announced a strategic partnership with the Americans. The specialist in high-performance semiconductors has already announced the delivery of new silicon carbide chips for the next generation of inverters for upcoming electric models.

It will not only be exciting to see how the design and interior quality of the upcoming Jaguar models turn out, but also what advances the big cat brand will offer its customers in the drive area.