Jaguar GT Will Lead Electric Project As JLR Spends $19 billion.
“JLR is making strides towards its financial goals”
Sports-car maker Jaguar will begin its move to an all-electric and upmarket future in 2025 with the 4-door “GT”, priced at more than £100,000 ($125,000) and with a claimed range of up to 430 miles.
The storied sports-car subsidiary of Tata Motors of India’s Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plans 3 new all-electric Jaguars, with GT sales starting in 2025.
JLR, in a media presentation at its Gaydon, England headquarters, said it will invest £15 billion ($18.7 billion) over 5 years to electrify Jaguar, Range Rover and Land Rover brands.
Land Rover gets its first electric model in 2024. The first all-electric Range Rover goes on sale in 2025.
Jaguar’s current range of internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles includes sedans like the XF, E and F-Pace SUVs and a two-seater sports car. They are being run down ahead of the switch to an all-electric lineup.
It’s not clear what happens to the I-Pace electric SUV. Former CEO Thierry Bollore cancelled the big J-Pace SUV, and what would have been a range-topping electric XJ sedan.
Unlike Jaguar, Range Rovers will continue to be sold with ICE and hybrid motors, as markets around the world electrify at different paces.
“With Range Rover, the original luxury SUV, available for pre-order in pure electric form later this year, and the first of three breath-taking electric reimagined Jaguar models to be launched in 2025, we are stepping into an incredibly exciting new electric era for JLR as a modern luxury business,” JLR CEO Adrian Mardell said.
JLR gave no more details about the new Jaguar electric cars, apart from the GT. They presumably could include a two-seater sports, along the lines of the current F-type, or a revived XJ limousine.
Risky
Analysts have said Jaguar’s new all-electric target market would be higher priced and mean selling far fewer vehicles, but with much higher profits. This is risky because current Jaguar customers would be excluded. Traditional well-known and established manufacturers like Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls Royce and Maybach have a brand power built up over many years. But at least it would move Jaguar away from competing with the likes of the German premium makers like BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Porsche. Jaguar never had the volume to allow it to match them in choice, price and profits.
With Jaguar moving upmarket, this would also remove the problem of its SUVs stealing sales from JLRs highly successful Range Rover and Land Rover luxury off-road vehicles.
Former CEO Bollore had said Jaguar would look outside of JLR for partners to develop the new range of electric cars, but the announcement Wednesday gave no hint of that.
JLR has had some good financial news recently when it reported its first quarterly profit in 2 years on rising demand for its vehicles and an easing of the shortage of semiconductor supplies. In the 3rd quarter ended December 31, 2022, JLR earned profit before tax of £265 million ($320 million) compared with a loss of £9 million in the same period of 2021. It forecast “near breakeven” for the whole financial year.
In his statement Wednesday, CEO Mardell said JLR is making strides towards its financial goals of achieving a net cash positive position by the 2025 fiscal year, and double-digit EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) by 2026.
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