Next Jaguar XJ limo to still be offered with petrol power
Replacement XJ based on new JLR platform to come with a pure-electric powertrain first and then traditional petrol engines laterMore details of the next-generation replacement for the current Jaguar XJ have been revealed at an event held for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) investors.
According to senior JLR execs, the new 2020 Jaguar XJ will be co-developed alongside a Range-Rover-badged SUV that will arrive a year later in 2021 but, in contradiction to earlier reports, both models will not share a platform with the pure-electric I-PACE.
Instead, the new XJ and Range Rover will be based on JLR's new Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA), which has been developed for not only pure-electric drivetrains but plug-in hybrid and mild-hybrid powertrains.
The new MLA platform will, say insiders, eventually replace the five platforms currently used by Jaguar.
From launch, Jaguar confirmed to investors that the big new XJ will initially only be offered with a pure-electric powertrain, pitching it head-to-head with cars like the Porsche Taycan and the Tesla Model S, but later on six-cylinder petrol power will be introduced.
Confirming in a presentation that the MLA-based Jaguar and Range Rover would be powered by a 90.2kWh battery, head of product engineering Nick Rogers revealed the next XJ would have an EV range of up to 470km.
The unnamed Range Rover sibling to be introduced a year later will be followed shortly after by a replacement for the Range Rover Sport based on the same MLA architecture.
It's thought that since it shares the MLA platform, the Range Rover Sport might be offered with pure-electric power too, but it's more likely to continue to feature plug-in hybrid and mild-hybrid powertrains.
The MLA-based plug-in hybrids will come equipped with a 13.1kWh battery that will provide for a range of 50km.
The reason both the XJ and Range Rover are not based on the I-PACE's dedicated pure-electric platform is chiefly down to costs.
The use of the MLA platform will also enable the battery-powered cars to run down the same production line as their petrol and diesel powered cousins.
The disadvantage is that designers cannot take advantage of the extra packaging possibilities small electric motors provide as they have to make room for the larger internal combustion engines and transmissions that will be introduced later.
Despite abandoning the I-PACE platform for the next XJ, outgoing Jaguar head of design Ian Callum told
that it would be "mad" if JLR abandoned the pure-electric SUV's dedicated architecture."We are moving to MLA yes, but that won't be the only platform," he told the newswire, contradicting the earlier announcement to investors that the car-maker was moving to just one platform.
"It would be mad not to evolve the I-PACE platform. It's not the least expensive platform in the world, but the first platform is inevitably going more expensive than the next one."
It's thought that JLR's reluctance to continue with the platform of the I-PACE, which is built by Magna Steyr in Austria on behalf of Jaguar, could be related to the British car-maker's huge cost-saving crusade following its $US4.6 billion ($A6.6b) loss in the financial year to March, following a sales slump in China.
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