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Jaguar I-Pace makes transition to production with hardly any changes

It looks like Jaguar designer Ian Callum wasn't kidding when he said the I-Pace concept was "a preview of a five-seat production car that will be on the road in 2018." Based on these spy photos, the production I-Pace will look darn near identical to the concept. The prototype seen above, in a unique and rather groovy green camouflage wrap, retains the swoopy cab-forward design of its concept predecessor. The headlights have the same shape and still sweep back nearly to the front wheel wells, and the door handles are still flush mounted ovals placed low on the doors. At the back, the crisp crease marking the trailing edge of the hatch is intact, as well as the triangular points on the rear spoiler. There have been a few minor changes here and there. At the front, the grille doesn't have quite as much depth as the concept, and the base of the front bumper doesn't have as aggressive an air dam. The big heat extractor vent in the hood is also gone. The rear bumper has also been rounded off a bit more with a simpler rear diffuser. The side glass is in production form, so now there are seams that show where the glass rolls down. It appears the rear doors will have quite a small glass opening, as the seam is roughly at the half-way point of the window. If the mechanicals of the concept end up as unchanged as this prototype's exterior, expect the production I-Pace to have a pair of electric motors that will produce 400 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque. Jaguar estimates these will propel the car to 60 mph in about 4 seconds. The motors will be supplied with power from a 90 kWh lithium-ion battery, which Jaguar says will provide a range of 220 miles. With a target date of 2018, we would expect to see the production model revealed at the end of 2017 or early in 2018. Related Video:

Jaguar Land Rover considering Mexican plant

Jaguar Land Rover has been expanding its production out of the UK and into overseas markets, and according to the latest word from Bloomberg, the British automaker is considering spending more than half a billion dollars to build a new assembly plant somewhere in Mexico. Since the Range Rover Sport and Evoque are two of the company's top sellers in the US, those would reportedly be the most likely to be manufactured at the Mexican plant, although Jaguars could follow as well. The automaker was previously said to be leaning towards a location in the Southern US, and while it could conceivably proceed with plans for both, it would be more likely to go with one or the other. State and local authorities below the Mason-Dixon line have been soliciting the business with various incentives, but lower labor costs South of the Border could prove more attractive to JLR and its parent company Tata. It wouldn't be the first, after all. Over the past month alone, General Motors committed to building the next Chevy Cruze in Mexico, Toyota did the same with the Corolla, Hyundai was reported to be considering a similar step, and Ford announced two new plants in the country amounting to a $2.5-billion investment. Luxury automakers like Audi, BMW and Mercedes have also been delving into Mexican production as well, blazing a path that JLR could potentially follow. The British automaker recently opened a plant in China and another in Brazil, while investing in additional facilities in the UK as well.

Child cobalt miners: Automakers pledge ethical minerals sourcing for EVs

BERLIN - Leading carmakers including Volkswagen and Toyota pledged on Wednesday to uphold ethical and socially responsible standards in their purchases of minerals for an expected boom in electric vehicle production. Demand for minerals such as cobalt, graphite and lithium is forecast to soar in the coming years as governments crack down on vehicle pollution and carmakers step up their investments in electric models. To cover its plans for more than 80 new models by 2025, Volkswagen alone is looking for partners in China, Europe and North America to provide battery cells and related technology worth more than 50 billion euros ($59 billion). Talks with major cobalt producers, including Glencore, at VW's Wolfsburg headquarters last week ended without a deal. More than half of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country racked by political instability and legal opacity, and where child labor is used in mines. On Wednesday, a group of 10 leading passenger-car and truck manufacturers announced an initiative to jointly identify and address ethical, environmental, human and labor rights issues in raw materials sourcing. The partnership dubbed "Drive Sustainability" consists of VW, Toyota Motor Europe, Ford, Daimler, BMW, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo Cars and truckmakers Scania and Volvo. The alliance "will assess the risks posed by the top raw materials (such as mica, cobalt, rubber and leather) in the automotive sector," said Stefan Crets of the CSR Europe business network. "This will allow Drive Sustainability to identify the most impactful activities to pursue" to address issues within the supply chain.Reporting by Andreas Cremer.Related Video: Image Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images Green BMW Ford Honda Jaguar Land Rover Mercedes-Benz Automakers Toyota Volkswagen Volvo Green Automakers Green Culture Electric Scania ethics mining