Electric Jaguar XJ plans axed at last minute

The upcoming replacement for the Jaguar XJ, which was to rework into a entirely electric saloon, has been axed, firm bosses have confirmed. 

The shock announcement came as Jaguar Land Rover confirmed that it would become a entirely electric car brand by 2025, launching 6 EVs in that time frame. Even so, the very expected XJ, owing to be uncovered at the close of this yr, will not be one of them.

An formal assertion browse: “Although the nameplate may well be retained, the prepared Jaguar XJ replacement will not variety portion of the line-up, as the brand seems to realise its exclusive likely.” 

For a job to be termed off so near to its formal launch day, as all design and style and engineering function on the XJ had been complete, is very unusual. Prototypes had been developed and on-highway tests had previously commenced. 

Car Categorical spoke to Jaguar’s design and style director Julian Thompson only final yr, who uncovered that the job was in its latter phases. “It’s likely to be a really, really deluxe, really, really quiet, tranquil piece of transportation,” he claimed. “But it can be not overtly flashy, it can be not overly costly.

“It’s a car which you make an emotional relationship with. We never want all our persons who get our automobiles to just sit in the back of them and just be driven all over in them. They can be applied like that, but at the close of the day, we know that these automobiles are there to be skilled and driven and savored satisfying to sit in, stress-free to sit in, and beautiful to seem at.”

New 2021 Jaguar XJ: What could have been

Our exclusive impression demonstrates how the new Jaguar XJ could have looked. Its styling was to be an evolution of the outgoing car’s, retaining the identical lengthy, wide stance and slender headlamps models, as nicely as the company’s trademark radiator grille and shark fin antenna.

Jaguar’s most the latest teaser impression suggested that the new XJ would also acquire a sharper XF-influenced rear close, with a comprehensive-width mild-bar. Although the rear of the check mule was masked beneath significant camouflage, a refined crease operating throughout the width of the bootlid suggested this characteristic would seem on the now axed production design.

The new XJ was also established to be a really various car to Jaguar’s initial electric car, the I-Speed. Thomson suggested that the XJ would have a classic saloon seem with the basic lengthy bonnet. “If a cab-forward hunting car does not suit a selected sort of auto, I never imagine you really should do it,” he claimed. 

“We’re there to make the ideal hunting automobiles we potentially can, so the new XJ, it does have a bonnet on it, and it can be a really, really elegant form.” Thompson concluded, indicating: “It’s likely a very little little bit extra classic than the I-Pace” – and this remaining assertion certainly would seem to be supported by the most up-to-date spy shots we noticed the car.

New 2021 Jaguar XJ: system and drivetrain

The new XJ was to be made in the United kingdom at JLR’s Castle Bromwich production web page, which would have safeguarded 1000’s of positions more than the future few several years. 

Basing production of the all-electric XJ at Castle Bromwich made logistical perception to Jaguar Land Rover, as it available straightforward accessibility to the firm’s electric motor manufacturing centre in Wolverhampton. 

Even so, unlike the I-Speed, which was developed on a modified variation of the F-Pace’s system, the new XJ was to be centered on Jaguar’s all-new MLA underpinnings. The system can guidance, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and comprehensive electric powertrains, but Jaguar had only intended to develop an electric XJ before the job was axed. 

Jaguar is continue to aiming to employ “giga-scale” battery production to guidance its new EV projects, with a new United kingdom-centered plant in Hams Corridor, North Warwickshire. The facility will be entirely operational later on this yr and aims to develop ample batteries to provide one hundred fifty,000 electric Jaguar Land Rover designs each yr.

Jaguar Land Rover’s electrification expense

Britain’s biggest car maker has experienced a sequence of setbacks in the latest several years – and has been compelled to axe positions and expense opportunities to boost revenue amid dwindling revenue. The company’s declining revenue figures are owing, at minimum in portion, to JLR’s reliance on diesel, which has fallen out of favour with buyers.

This new announcement that the firm is shifting to electrification – and with Jaguar established to become an EV-only brand – really should reduce the company’s dependence on diesel.

Check out the most up-to-date on the future Vary Rover in this article…