Currently reading: Breaking: Jaguar to become all-electric brand from 2025
Every Jaguar and Land Rover model to receive fully electric variant by 2030, with separate EV platforms for each brand
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5 mins read
15 February 2021

Jaguar will become an electric-only brand from 2025 onwards, as part of a bold new ‘Reimagine’ strategy designed to revive the fortunes of Jaguar Land Rover.

New CEO Thierry Bollore has set a target for the British firm, owned by the Indian Tata Motors group, to become a net zero carbon business by 2039, including a major shift to electrification. By the end of the decade, every Jaguar and Land Rover model will be offered with an electric-only version.

Bolloore said that there are currently no plans to close any manufacturing facilities.

All Jaguar and Land Rover models will be offered with a pure electric version by the end of the decade, with Jaguar becoming an electric-only luxury brand from 2025 onwards. Meanwhile, Land Rover will launch six pure electric vehicles, with EV variants of five. 

Land Rover will launch six pure electric vehicle variants within the next five years, with the first all-electric Land Rover due in 2024. 

Bollore said that the new Reimagine plan was designed to emphasise “quality over volume”, with the firm aiming to become “the supplier of the most desirable vehicles for discerning customers.”

The two brands will be repositioned, with Jaguar becoming an electric-only firm and Land Rover retaining its off-road ethos but continuing its push upmarket. “Jaguar and Land Rover will have two clear unique personalities, rooted in their rich history to give two distinct choices for customers,” said Bollore.

Architectures and powertrains: three platforms, electric focus

To support the electric transition JLR will use three architectures: two dedicated to Land Rover and a new pure-BEV platform that will be exclusive to Jaguar, details of which will follow at a later data.

Future Land Rover models will be built on the Modular Longitudinal Architecture, which allows for combustion engine and EV models, and the “electric-biased” Electric Modular Architecture (EMA), which can also “support advanced electrified” combustion engines.

The firm says that the moving onto three platforms, and consolidating the number of platforms and models produced per plant, will help the firm to “establish new benchmark standards in efficient scale and quality for the luxury sector.”

The firm says that will be key to ensuring it can retain its UK and other worldwide plants (see below).

By the end of the decade the firm is aiming for 100% of Jaguar sales to be fully electric, along with 60% of Land Rover sales. Bollore also said the firm has committed to phasing out diesel powertrains by 2026, and is making a heavy investment in hydrogen fuel cell technology, with the firm’s first hydrogen tech mules due to be running on public roads by the end of the year.

Manufacturing: ‘no plans’ to close facilities

The firm says that it has no plans to close any of its “core manufacturing facilities”, and will retain “our plant and assembly facilities in the home UK market and around the world.”

Jagur Land Rover has said that ie will not discontinue any current products and “do not plan to stop production” of any existing models.

The firm’s Solihull plant will be used to build Land Rovers on the MLA platform and Jaguar models on the new BEV platform. The Hailwood facility will be used to build cars on the EMA architecture.

The future of the Castle Bromwich site is less clear, with Bollore saying “first we will continue production of our existing nameplates built there to the end of their lifecycle. Then we will explore opportunities to refurbish the plant, which could benefit from the consolidation of businesses scattered across the midlands.”

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Jaguar

Jaguar presented the more pressing challenge for new JLR CEO Bollore, with sales dropping sharply in recent years due to its heavy reliance on saloons and diesel powertrains.

Bollore said that Jaguar will undergo a “dramatic” transformation “to take a new luxurious position in the market to realise its unique potential not just for customers but the business as a whole”.

That will involve the brand becoming an electric-only firm with a focus on the high-end premium market, a plan that has been considered by the firm for some time.

Jaguar’s only electric car at the moment is the I-Pace SUV, but the firm had been working on a new electric-only XJ. However, Bollore has confirmed that model has been scrapped, with now on developing the new architecture that will be used to underpin every new, EV-only model from 2025 onwards. Bollore did suggest that the XJ nameplate could be retained for a future new model.

Land Rover

Land Rover will continue to offer a range of powertrains, but with a heavy focus on electrification. That will include six pure electric variants in the next five years as part of the existing Range Rover, Discovery and Defender families. The firm has not specified what the first electric model will be.

The first all-electric model will arrive in 2024. Bollore did not offer any further details on what the machine would be, although again the timeline suggests that it will not be the EV that had been planned as a ‘twin’ of the XJ.

Launching an electric version of every Land Rover model by 2030 will put the firm in a strong position to meet the UK’s 2030 ban on all but a limited number of non-zero emission vehicles. But continuing to offer combustion engined versions for the foreseeable future will also ensure the brand can continue to offer cars in markets where its products are popular but electric infrastructure is less developed.

The business transformation

Bollore highlighted Jaguar Land Rover’s recent financial results as showing that the firm has a “strong foundation” to build from, and suggested the new Reimagine plan will help to “right-size, repurpose and reorganise” its into a more agile operation.

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That will involve the implementation of a flatter management structure, and a reduction and rationalisation of “non-manufacturing infrastructure” in the UK. As part of that, JLR’s Gaydon facility will become the sold home of the management team.

Jaguar Land Rover says it will commit £2.5 billion annually into investment in electrification technology and connected services. That will include a continued investment in its Pivotal subscription model.

Jaguar Land Rover will also work closely with its Tata Group parent firm on new technology. Bollore highlighted that opportunity for collaboration as “a unique opportunity”, adding: “Others have to rely solely on external partnerships and compromise, but we have frictionless access that will allow us to lean forward with confidence and at speed.”

The aim is for Jaguar Land Rover to achieve positive cash flow net-of-debt by 2025, with the ultimate target to become “one of the most profitably luxury manufacturers in the world.”

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