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BMW and Jaguar Land Rover to jointly develop electric car tech

FRANKFURT – BMW and Jaguar Land Rover on Wednesday said they will jointly develop electric motors, transmissions and power electronics, unveiling yet another industry alliance designed to lower the costs of developing electric cars. Both carmakers are under pressure to roll out zero-emission vehicles to meet stringent anti-pollution rules, but have struggled to maintain profit margins faced with the rising costs of making electric, connected and autonomous cars. "Together, we have the opportunity to cater more effectively for customer needs by shortening development time and bringing vehicles and state-of-the-art technologies more rapidly to market," said BMW board member Klaus Froehlich. BMW and Jaguar Land Rover said they will save costs through shared development, production planning and joint purchasing of electric car components. Both companies will produce electric drivetrains in their own manufacturing facilities, BMW said. The BMW Jaguar Land Rover pact comes as rivals FiatChrysler and Renault explore a $35 billion tie-up of the Italian-American and French carmaking groups. Nick Rogers, Jaguar Land Rover's engineering director said, "We've proven we can build world beating electric cars but now we need to scale the technology to support the next generation of Jaguar and Land Rover products." BMW was in talks with rival Daimler about developing electric car components but was also in discussions with Jaguar Land Rover, a company it once owned, to explore an alliance on engines. BMW already has a deal to supply an 8 cylinder engine to Jaguar Land Rover. Carmakers are increasingly open to sharing electric car parts because the technology is expensive and because customers no longer buy a car based on what engine a vehicle has. "Carmakers are much less precious about sharing electric car technology because it is much harder to create product differentiation with electric car tech. They all accelerate fast, and everybody can do quality and ride and handling," according to Carl-Peter Forster a former chief executive of Tata Motors and a former BMW executive. Jaguar Land Rover is still run by former BMW managers, including Ralf Speth the company's chief executive who spent 20 years at BMW prior to joining JLR, and Wolfgang Ziebart, the engineer who oversaw Jaguar's I-Pace electric car program, who is a former head of research and development at BMW.

Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo SV ups the performance of the virtual sports car

Last year, Jaguar created its very first concept car made specifically for the Gran Turismo video game series, and this year it's following it up with an even faster racing variant. It's called the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo SV, and it has some pretty wild specifications. This virtual racing machine no longer uses three motors, but four, with the extra motor being fitted to the front and allowing torque vectoring at all four wheels. Output has increased substantially to 1,877 horsepower and 2,478 pound-feet of torque. The regular Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo "only" made 1,005 horsepower and 885 pound-feet of torque. Jaguar claims a 0-60 mph time for the SV of 1.65 seconds and a top speed of 255 mph. That top speed might be higher if it weren't for the various aerodynamic aids adding downforce. It has a huge splitter, diffuser and long adaptive rear wing. The car can create up to 1,000 pounds of downforce at 200 mph. One other wild performance feature is the cooling system for the lithium-ion battery pack. It has a coolant circuit with liquid nitrogen that ensures the battery doesn't overheat when discharging the massive amount of electricity to run the powerful motors. Though Jaguar will likely never actually produce a functional version of this car in real life, the company did at least create a full-size model of it. It should be impressive in person given its extraordinarily low, wide and long shape. We're hoping it shows up at car shows when the pandemic subsides. The virtual car is due to be available in 2021. Jaguar didn't specifically say which version of Gran Turismo is will be featured in. The regular car can be driven in "Gran Turismo Sport." The racing version could be added to "Gran Turismo Sport," but the launch date of 2021 has us wondering if it will instead show up in "Gran Turismo 7" for PlayStation 5. Related Video:

An E-Type in the garden: rotting '63 Jaguar heads for auction

There's something about formerly gorgeous cars in dilapidated states from which the eye cannot turn away. The devastatingly cruel fate of this Jaguar E-Type is an illustration. Next week, it likely begins a new life. Still voluptuous after decades rotting in a garden, this 1963 Series 1 fixed head coupe will be offered for sale at the Coys auction Tuesday in London. The car has 44,870 miles on the odometer and has passed through several owners, including one with a tangential connection to the Beatles and another man who used the Jag to pull his MG to Brands Hatch. He would race them both, according to Coys' listing, wringing the most out of the E-Type's 265-horsepower inline six. Ivor Arbiter was owner No. 1. His link to history is that he designed the Beatles drop-T logo in the early '60s and was reportedly paid five British pounds for it. He bought the E-Type new in 1963, used it, and then sold it to in 1965. The E-Type passed through a couple of owners until motorsports enthusiast Frank Riches bought it in '67. He tracked the Jag at some of Britain's iconic circuits and drove it until he fried the clutch. Coys cites a story from Riches' brother recounting when the E-Type hit 150 miles per hour on a public road, its listed top speed. It was in storage until the 1980s, and then Riches relocated it to his garden, where it has sat for years. Considering its long dormancy, the Jag appears to be in reasonable shape. It's never been restored, obviously, and Riches still has many of the original parts he replaced, including the center console and radiator bar. Coys notes that the seats have a "lovely patina" and are worth saving, too. The buyer also gets a brown logbook, the sales invoice to Riches, two service books (it is a '63 Jag) and a spare parts catalogue. A Coys auctioneer told ITV.com that the car could net about $140,000. Related Video: Jaguar Auctions Coupe Luxury Performance jaguar e-type