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Jaguar to create Panthera electric vehicle platform in-house

Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bollore isn't trying to make Jaguar's turnaround, called "Reimagine," easy nor inexpensive. What it appears he's most interested in doing is making sure the turnaround creates a range of Jaguar electric vehicles that exude the historic Jaguar-ness the brand still gets credit for but hasn't been known for in a while. He had told Autocar last year that future products must be "really modern luxury cars that are the copy of nothing in style or design, the top of technology and refinement, but not looking backwards." Since then, the brand had cast around for an existing electric platform created by another automaker or a supplier that it could adopt for Jaguar use, but nothing met the standard. Instead, Autocar now reports the English carmaker will create its own EV platform in-house. Company CFO Adrian Mardell said in an investor call the platform is called "Panthera," which is the scientific name for the genus of large cats that include jaguars, leopards, lions, and tigers. Bollore said, "Concerning the new Jaguar, we're making unique proportion a priority. That's the reason why at the moment we do it by ourselves." Some have fastened on the phrase "at the moment" to suggest the Panthera plan could be temporary. And while that's possible — there have been a lot of temporary plans all over the industry for the past few years — Jaguar is expected to release the first EV in its new lineup in 2025, so the plan couldn't be temporary for long. Slightly under four years from now would be just enough time to create a new mechanical architecture on a new technical foundation to serve a new vehicle. Emphasis on "just." The Panthera platform makes sense, if Jaguar can pull it off. Bollore wants the coming Jaguars to be considered alongside Bentley and Aston Martin, so he'll need those unique proportions along with brilliant design to draw buyers that haven't considered the brand in ages, if ever. The makeup of the revamped model line remains murky. On the sedan side, it's thought the XE and XF might become a single midsize four-door. The return of a true flagship sedan isn't clear, but it seems a good possibility considering the intended competition and as a differentiator with sister brand Land Rover. As to crossovers, the E-Pace and F-Pace might make the transition to battery power, and a new J-Pace flagship crossover looking unlikely in order to, again, maintain space from Land Rover.

Junkyard Gem: 1994 Jaguar XJ12

While Americans were able to buy new Jaguar two-doors with V12 engines under their bonnets from 1971 all the way through 1996, availability of new Jaguar 12-cylinder sedans was much spottier here. The Series 1 and Series 2 XJ12s were sold here from the 1973 through 1979 model years, and then there was a grim Jaguar V12 four-door drought here all the way until the 1994 model year. Here's one of those very rare felines, found in a Northern California boneyard in April. Jaguar had developed the XJ40 successor to the Series 3 XJ over an agonizingly protracted period that spanned the British Leyland era of the early 1970s through the first production cars being shown to the world in 1986. The XJ40 first appeared in the United States as a 1988 model. The following year, the Ford Motor Company bought Jaguar. The engineers in Coventry struggled to design a viable V12-engined XJ40 for years, giving it the XJ81 designation. At long last, the XJ81 was revealed to the motoring world in 1993… just prior to the replacement of the XJ40 by the XJ300 for the 1995 model year. All of the XJ81s sold in the United States—just over 1,500 of them in all—were 1994 models. This junkyard provided a bonanza of rare European iron when I stopped by on that chilly spring morning. Located within a few rows of this one-year-only XJ81 were a Volkswagen Phaeton and a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. The yard also had a running Peugeot 504 for sale in their "builders" section, and I'll admit I was very tempted by it. The April 1994 production date indicates that this is one of the very last members of the XJ40/XJ81 family to be built (though Jaguar continued to use platforms derived from the XJ40 until the X350a arrived as 2003 models). This 6.0-liter engine was an excruciatingly tight fit in this engine compartment (there are semi-credible tales that the XJ40's engine compartment was made so narrow as a sneaky office-politics means of preventing British Leyland from installing Rover V8s in Jaguars), and working on it must be a mechanic's nightmare. Output was 301 horsepower and 336 pound-feet. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz's V12 was rated at 389 horsepower and 420 pound-feet, while BMW's V12 had 296 horsepower and 332 pound-feet. The MSRP for this car was $73,200 for the dual-airbag version (and we can see that both airbags were deployed in this car's career-ending crash). That amounts to $151,889 in 2023 dollars.

Jaguar F-Type's next generation could be mid-engined

Jaguar's heritage is built on sports cars powered by a big, front-mounted engine covered by a long hood. The F-Type perfectly fits into this mold, but the company is ready and willing to set tradition aside in order to inject more performance into its next two-door model. Ian Callum, Jaguar's former design director, told Autocar that he had worked with Julian Thomson, his successor, to outline what the next F might look like, and the Chevrolet Corvette's recent transformation seemingly inspired them. His proposal calls for moving the engine from directly in front of the firewall to right behind the cabin. Making the F-Type mid-engined would shift its proportions in a wider, lower, and more aggressive direction. Sound familiar? It will if you've kept up with Jaguar news over the past few years. "We could get quite close [to the C-X75]," Callum said. The jet turbine-powered, James Bond-fighting C-X75 concept released in 2010 was on track for production, but it was canceled at the last minute. Callum's comments confirm there is still a small but vocal group of engineers in Jaguar's research and development department who want to see a mid-engined coupe join the company's portfolio. Whether such a model will appear is up in the air. Callum retired to form his own design firm a few weeks ago, so the F-Type's fate is no longer in his hands. He added that the option of making the second-generation model another front-engined, rear-wheel drive two-door is still on the table. The current F will soldier on for another three years after receiving significant updates for the 2021 model year, so Jaguar will need to decide whether to stay the course or shift to a mid-engined configuration relatively soon. Either way, enthusiasts will be pleased to hear the F-Type will return.