Jaguar and Land Rover’s electric future plans have one major absentee: the fully electric Jaguar XJ. However, this does not appear to be the only ‘scrapped’ EV, despite an investment of more than € 1 billion already made.
Jaguar Land Rover recently revealed how it envisions its electric future. Jaguar will already be a purely electric brand by 2025, at Land Rover the transition to electric drive will be a bit easier. A striking fact from the statement of the company was that a fully electric Jaguar XJ is no longer part of the planned model range. The ‘name remains’, but Jaguar ‘is rethinking the future’ of it. In concrete terms, it means that there were already plans, but that they have now been put in the bulky waste. After all, people prefer not to choose the intended platform.
This is also evident from a further clarification by CFO Adrian Mardell, who Automotive News came to hear. He talks about ‘calling off the MLA mid-program’, which included the new XJ and an all-electric Land Rover. The MLA platform, a modular base that is suitable for both electric and conventional powertrains, would only be further developed for the new generation Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, of which electric versions are also planned. The deleted Land Rover that people are talking about is a somewhat mysterious case. That would reportedly be a model under the Range Rover, which would probably come to the market purely electrically.
It is now clear that JLR wants a modular platform that is purely focused on electric powertrains (as opposed to MLA). That is undoubtedly the main reason for putting the new XJ and the unnamed Land Rover on hold. After all, they would, just like the other electric Jaguars, possibly better also be on that more focused basis. It is still uncertain what basis that will be, according to the British; they indicate that they are still looking for a partnership with another manufacturer. In any case, it is a painful and costly decision. Mardell would have explained to his investors that an investment of € 1.16 billion from 2019 has been canceled by this.