Jaguar Land Rover
recently announced that the next generation of the Jaguar XJ will be an all
electric vehicle. JLR made this announcement as the company rolled out the last
model of the current generation Jaguar XJ. Alongside this, the company also
announced that all the models in Jaguar and Land Rover's stable will be
available with an option of electric or hybrid powertrain from 2020 onward.
This is a major step in company's electrification plans.
If we talk about
the next generation electric XJ, then the details about the sedan are still
scarce. However, JLR has noted that it will be developed by the same team of
experts which created Jaguar I-PACE, the electric luxury SUV which was awarded
the 2019 World Car of the Year. Along side this, the company also noted that
the electric XJ will be company's first new EV to be produced at company's
Castle Bromwich manufacturing facility, a plant which will serve as the hub for
EV manufacturing as well as electronic drive units and battery assembly for
JLR.
To accelerate
production of electric vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover has made significant
investment on the Castle Bromwich unit to make it the first premium EV
manufacturing plant in the UK. JLR also announced that it is working on
developing a new platform Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) to
underpin its hybrid, and fully-electric vehicles. The company noted that many
of its diesel and petrol vehicles in the future will be based on this MLA
platform.
The work on
electric Jaguar XJ is likely to commence in mid-2020, which is when the Castle
Bromwich unit is expected to become fully operational.
