Xjl Supercharged on 2040-cars

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Jaguar's EV future starts with three 'sports crossovers' in 2025

Who'd have thought Cadillac and Jaguar would have so much in common? Once paramount luxury brands that lost their respective ways around the same time, floundered with one not-good-enough product after another, and have several failed reboots on their resumes. Given one last chance by their parent companies to get it together, both committed to all-electric lineups. And both have made it clear they're targeting the super-luxe demo, with Bentley the marque that always comes up as the hare in the distance. Cadillac appears to have made an outstanding shot off the line, its Lyriq bringing home reviews worthy of long-ago Cadillac, the Celestiq promising everything we screamed for from Cadillac concepts like the Escala and Ciel. We have two more years to wait for what Jaguar's bringing, the English automaker not expected to show near-production concepts of it coming lineup until a "globally significant" auto show that year. Autocar calims to have a few more details out of Jaguar HQ about what's to come. The product lineup has been guesswork to now. Autocar says it's going to be "a trio of ... electric sports crossovers." If that's the case, that means the F-Type puts an end to Jaguar's run of sporty, luxurious coupes — for a spell, at least. According to the report, the new range starts with a model around the size of the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo wagon, which is an inch shorter than a Cadillac Lyriq. Two- and four-door variants will offer single- and dual-motor powertrains. Pricing is expected to begin in the GBP80,000 ($96,406 U.S.) to GBP90,000 ($108,457 U.S.) bracket, which would make this EV the highest starting price for any entry-level production Jaguar in maybe ever. Right now, the I-Pace starts at GBP66,350 ($79,957 U.S.), the F-Pace at GBP46,250. The most expensive model among the range is the F-Pace SVR at GBP81,150 ($97,792 U.S.). It's thought the upper end of the lower-end EV could "push prices to GBP120,000" ($144,610 U.S.) before getting to the SVR trims.     There's no info on the middle sibling. The flagship is anticipated to start around GBP120,000. Two motors and all-wheel-drive would be the default powertrain, prices hitting GBP200,000 ($241,016 U.S.) for SVR models.  The aim is to earn comfortable profit selling no more than 60,000 vehicles globally per year.

Crowd sets Waymo self-driving vehicle ablaze in San Francisco

A crowd vandalized and set fire to a Waymo self-driving car using a firework in San Francisco on Saturday, the Alphabet-owned company and authorities said, marking the most destructive attack so far on driverless vehicles in the U.S. On Saturday night, a crowd surrounded a white sport utility vehicle that was moving along a street in the city's Chinatown district, a company spokesperson said. Michael Vandi, a witness who posted videos of the incident, told Reuters that people were celebrating China's Lunar New Year by setting off fireworks. A person jumped onto the hood of the Waymo vehicle and broke its windshield. Another person also jumped on the hood 30 seconds later as some in the crowd clapped in approval, he told Reuters in an X direct message. "That was when it went WILD," he wrote, describing people with skateboards breaking the glass and others graffitiing the car. "There were 2 groups of people. Folks who encourage it — and others who were just shocked & started filming. No one stood up — i mean there wasnÂ’t anything you could do to stand up to dozens of people." His video showed the vehicle engulfed in flames with a huge plume of black smoke. Waymo said someone threw a firework inside, which set the vehicle on fire. The fire department posted pictures on social media of the charred remains of the car and said a firework started the blaze. "The vehicle was not transporting any riders and no injuries have been reported. We are working closely with local safety officials to respond to the situation," the company said. It did not say what caused the attack. The San Francisco Police Department said it was investigating the cause of the fire and did not say whether arrests have been made. The electric car, a Jaguar I-PACE, is equipped with 29 cameras and other sensors. The latest incident came a day before the Super Bowl NFL championship involving the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs. "This was a one-off event," the Waymo spokesperson told Reuters, adding it will "continue serving riders during todayÂ’s festivities." The incident was not the first time people have harassed self-driving cars, but its severity may illustrate growing public hostility following a pedestrian-dragging accident last year involving a vehicle operated by General Motors' Cruise unit.

Xcar focuses on famed Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis

If you have any interest at all in motoring history, especially when it comes to European sports car racing from the '50s and '60s, do absolutely whatever you can to set aside 38 minutes for this interview with former Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis from XCar. Dewis had a hand in developing the British brand's vehicles from 1952 to 1985, and as expected over that time, he amassed some fantastic stories. Xcar did a great job of teasing a few of those great tales out of him here. From the very beginning, Dewis was gifted with a natural talent to read a car as a test driver. When he was just 16, he was taken out on his first chance to evaluate a vehicle and picked out even more intricacies than his instructor. Dewis eventually wound up at Jaguar, and that's where his career really took off. Among his many accomplishments there, he had a role in developing disc brakes both for racing and the road, set multiple world top speed records, and helped bring the E-Type to the world. Dewis even made the famous overnight drive in an XKE convertible from England to display it at the Geneva Motor Show. Dewis tells a first-hand account of being in the Jaguar paddock during the tragic accident during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans that took the lives of dozens of spectators. It's a story that we usually can only read about or watch in black-and-white films. Hearing Dewis' side really brings this history to life.