Jaguar will be an pure-electric luxury car brand from 2025

Jaguar Land Rover bosses have outlined the car maker’s future plans, including the intention for Jaguar to be an ‘all-electric luxury brand’ to rival Tesla from 2025.

The move will see Jaguar completely axe the petrol engines that made its name within the next four years.  

Land Rover will also launch six new pure electric models in the next five years and every car in its range will have an electric option by 2030. 

New JLR CEO Thierry Bollore made the announcement on Monday, with the new ‘Reimagine’ strategy also committing to retaining its production facilities in the UK.

It is part of the UK's biggest car maker's wider plans to shift to battery-powered vehicles announced this morning by new French boss, Thierry Bollore (pictured)

Jaguar to be a direct Tesla rival from 2025: The British marque will be an all-electric car maker in 2025 as part of the UK’s biggest car maker’s wider plans to shift to battery-powered vehicles announced this morning by new French boss, Thierry Bollore (right)

At the same time, he said that Land Rover will phase out diesel engines from 2026 and invest more heavily in hydrogen fuel cell technology, bosses said. 

Jaguar Land Rover is one of the car makers hit hardest by the downturn in demand for diesel vehicles in recent years.

Its range of models across both brands relied heavily on diesel engines, which have seen sales tumble in the years since the VW emissions cheating scandal rattled the industry in 2015. 

Ballore, the brand’s new French boss, was drafted into JLR last July having been ousted from Renault after less than a year in the top job. He took over from Carlos Ghosn – who last year famously fled from Japan to the Lebanon in a spectacular escape to evade criminal corruption charges there. 

Bollore said the aim of the Reimagine strategy will not only revive the fortunes of JLR – owned by the Indian Tata Motors group – but will steer it on course to becoming a net zero carbon businesses by 2039.

The headline announcement is the dramatic shift for Jaguar, which is to be reimagined as an all-electric luxury brand by 2025.

This will pit the iconic British maker directly against Tesla, which currently has a stronghold on the premium EV market. 

Ironically, Jaguar’s reliance on diesel over the past decade only came after the firm had lost out initially to rivals such as BMW and Mercedes the early 2000s shift away from petrol engines.

For many years Jaguar was famous for its smooth and powerful inline six cylinder and V8 petrol engines, but its XF and XE saloons can now only be ordered with either a four cylinder petrol engine or mild hybrid diesel engine. 

Currently, Jaguar sells just one fully-electric model – the i-Pace SUV launched in 2018. Prices start from £65,195. 

Jaguar Land Rover will phase out diesel engines from 2026 and invest more heavily in hydrogen fuel cell technology, bosses said on Monday

Jaguar Land Rover will phase out diesel engines from 2026 and invest more heavily in hydrogen fuel cell technology, bosses said on Monday

The I-Pace SUV (pictured) is currently the only electric vehicle in Jaguar's range. Launched in 2018, prices start from £65,195

The I-Pace SUV (pictured) is currently the only electric vehicle in Jaguar’s range. Launched in 2018, prices start from £65,195

One model that won’t be pitched against Tesla’s Model S is an all-electric XJ limousine.

JLR’s statement has confirmed that the well-developed plans to launch the XJ EV later this year has been ditched entirely.

‘Following a thorough technology review against the exponential change in the automotive industry, we concluded that the planned XJ replacement does not fit with our vision for a reimaged Jaguar brand,’ the statement read.

‘We have made the tough decision that it will not form part of the line-up, as the brand looks to realise its unique potential. However, the nameplate may be retained.’

Who is Thierry Bollore?

Jaguar Land Rover CEO, Thierry Bollore

Jaguar Land Rover CEO, Thierry Bollore

New JLR boss Thierry Bollore hails from Brittany in France and studied for an MBA at Paris Dauphine University.

Among the most pressing items in his in-tray when taking over at the helm of JLR are the challenge to return Britain’s biggest car maker to profit after a big hit from the Covid-19 pandemic and a concern about sales in one of its biggest markets – China – at a time of international tension.

But Bollore’s experience of electric powered cars, charging networks, and changing patterns of mobility – where future generations may use vehicles but may not own them – gleaned at Renault and through family links is likely to have been a strong suit in his appointment against a strong line up of rival external and internal candidates.

He has a strong track record of working in the automotive industry in China where, in the current political climate, JLR may feel exposed.

He also has a proven track record for quality control of outputs, with the British brand infamous for making less-than-reliable motors, which tend to prop-up the dependability standings in owners surveys.

Bollore is a cousin of French billionaire Vincent Bollore, whose family owned investment firm Bollore, has big interests in electric car and charging networks, including providing those for the UK capital, though its Bluecity car-share scheme in London ended in January after poor take-up.

His wide ranging international experience on many continents – but particularly China – should stand him in good stead.

All JLR models will be offered with a pure electric version by the end of the decade, it says, while Land Rover will launch six pure electric vehicles, with EV variants of five with the first all-electric Land Rover due in 2024.

By the end of the decade the firm is aiming for 100 per cent of Jaguar sales to be fully electric, along with three in five Land Rover registrations. 

Part of the switch to battery cars will see the brand use just three architectures: two dedicated to Land Rover and a new pure-BEV platform that will be exclusive to Jaguar. 

And in a boost to post-Brexit Britain, bosses said there are no plans to close any of its ‘core manufacturing facilities’, which includes the Solihull and Castle Bromwich plants in the West Midlands and its Halewood factory near Liverpool.

From a core manufacturing perspective that means Jaguar Land Rover will retain its plant and assembly facilities in the home UK market and around the world,’ it said.

Solihull will also be the home to the ‘future advanced Jaguar pure electric platform’.

Jaguar Land Rover has said that it will not discontinue any current products and does ‘not plan to stop production’ of any existing models. 

Jim Holder, editorial director at Autocar, said the wider impact on the JLR workforce remains to be seen as the strategy clearly signals there will be reductions in manufacturing capacity and a shrinking of its UK footprint outside of its manufacturing facilities.

‘While details were scarce in today’s announcement, it is clear that Jaguar Land Rover, in common with most car makers, has come to the realisation that its business model needed to be completely ripped up in order for it to have any chance of thriving into the future,’ he said.

Mr Bollore also confirmed that JLR has committed to phasing out diesel powertrains by 2026 and will also invest heavily into the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology, with the firm’s first hydrogen tech mules due to be running on public roads by the end of 2021.

Jaguar Land Rover is the UK’s biggest car manufacturer.

In 2021, it produced 243,908 vehicles across its three manufacturing sites.

While this was more than any other UK maker, it was 37 per cent lower than production in 2019. 

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