Jaguar announces in-house electric vehicle platform

Jaguar has provided more detail on its shift to an all-electric line-up from 2025.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) CEO Thierry Bolloré confirmed the marque will utilise an electric vehicle platform designed in-house during a call with investors and the media earlier this week.

The company had previously considered looking externally to source an architecture suitable for Jaguar's electric luxury cars.

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Bolloré claims both Jaguar and Land Rover require a unique platform, such as the MLA High architecture used on the new Range Rover and the future EMA platform for smaller models, to meet the design proportions and capabilities expected by its customers.

However – with plans for Jaguar to become more upmarket to target Aston Martin and Bentley, rather than Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz – the luxury marque will develop a unique platform, referred to as Panthera.

“Concerning a new Jaguar, we're making unique proportion a priority. That’s the reason why at the moment we do it by ourselves,” Bolloré said.

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Panthera is the scientific name for the genus of large cats, including the jaguar.

While Jaguar will develop its specialised architecture, select components – such as the control points, batteries, electric motors and software – will be shared across all future JLR platforms to create “real scale”.

The news comes as JLR recorded a £9 million (AU$17m) loss for the third quarter of 2021, as the semiconductor chip shortage continues to wreak havoc across the automotive industry.

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By the end of this decade, every single Jaguar and Land Rover model will be available in an all-electric form – with the Jaguar brand focusing entirely on EVs from 2025.

An electric version of the flagship XJ, which was already in development, has been scrapped in the process, with the ‘Reimagine’ plan released in 2021 calling for the axing of current model lines – excluding the I-Pace EV – in favour of a more-premium line-up.

In an interview with Autocar last year, Bolloré stated the future Jaguar range will be “really modern luxury cars that are the copy of nothing in style or design [and] the top of technology and refinement”.