1952 Jaguar Xk on 2040-cars

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How and why Jaguar designed an electric SUV

Adrian Belew, front man of famed progressive rock band King Crimson and collaborator with Bowie, Zappa, and the Talking Heads, released a prescient song in 1982, but we didn't know exactly how prophetic it was until this week. The song was titled Big Electric Cat, and its lyrics seemed to predict nearly 35 years ago the unveiling of Jaguar's first all-electric vehicle, a production-ready crossover concept with the not-so-ingenious name, I-Pace. She arrives like a limo/Smooth and moving/On the prowl through the crowd/To the beat of the city/She glows in the dark/Wherever she parks/Concrete crumbles and the night rumbles. At first glimpse of the I-Pace, you may not have precisely the same feeling of disintegration as the roadbed Belew mentions, but there is no denying that the new Jag is important for the brand. Flush with investment from its corporate overlords at Tata, the company is on its most robust product offensive ever, rounding out its lineup to become a full-range manufacturer, investing in autonomous driving and projective head-up technologies, nearly doubling global sales, and now going electric. "This is probably the most important car since the E-Type, I really mean that," says Jaguar director of design Ian Callum. "And when we get this car out into production and it gains recognition and popularity, I think history will show it's a significant step for the brand. Not only because we're embracing the future, quite openly and honestly, but because we're going to beat the rest of them. Tesla is there already, but none of the rest." As a challenger brand – one not in the top of mind consideration set like rivals at Mercedes, Audi, or Lexus – Jaguars are made or broken on this kind of differentiation. The I-Pace is certainly distinctive, and looks like nothing else on the road. Like many contemporary Jaguars, its rear three-quarter view is its most compelling, with the slender half-round taillights inspired by the legendary E-Type that were first revived on the F-Type and have since become a signature. But here, the rear end is shaved off and in an angular concavity that seems an effort to take as much mass as possible out of the back, and one that echoes elsewhere on the vehicle: in the scalloped sides, in the continuous path of glass from the base of the front windshield to (almost) the base of the rear liftgate. But especially in the foreshortened and deep-nostriled hood.

Jaguar shows off production XE body in camo

Jaguar turned to Twitter and Facebook to reveal the production form of its coming XE sedan that we'll see for real at the Paris Motor Show. This is the first of a series of show-offs, Jaguar planning to wrap the bodywork in see-through camo that shows off the aluminum monocoque and other internals the company will use to promote the XE over its German rivals. That aluminum structure, which Jaguar calls iQ[Al], will also be used for other Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.
Underneath that long bonnet and ahead of that terribly short trunk will come a series of Ingenium engines, the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engines in diesel and petrol forms that will come in a variety of power options, and the 3.0-liter supercharged V6 that can also be found in the F-Type. Before the XE goes on sale early next year, you can click the image above to get a slightly larger view of what the The Leaping Cat's near future looks like.

Jaguar I-Pace is the first electric Google Street View car

Google has built a data gathering vehicle for its Maps Street View app out of a Jaguar I-Pace. It's billed as the first electric Street View car and is currently on the prowl and mapping the city of Dublin, Ireland. The one-off vehicle will not only photograph the roads of Ireland's capital, but measure street-to-street air cleanliness and greenhouse gases as well. It's equipped with air quality sensors by Aclima that measure carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, ozone, particulate matter and black carbon — all compounds that contribute to climate change when present in excess amounts. The partnership with Aclima is nothing new. Google has been equipping its more common Subaru Impreza Street View cars with the sensors since 2015. However, the Jaguar I-Pace will not contribute any emissions as it goes about its mission. The all-wheel-drive electric crossover can drive up to 246 miles (after a late 2019 software update) before a charge, and we'd wager Google won't be executing too many of Jaguar's claimed 4.5-second 0-60 sprints to cut down on that figure. Most of the Jag's 394 maximum horsepower and 512 pound-feet of torque will probably go unused. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Google & Dublin City Council Launch Innovative Partnership to Capture DublinÂ’s Air Pollution So why the I-Pace? Though the company has not said, Google's autonomous vehicle spinoff, Waymo, has used Jaguars in self-driving car research. However, Waymo was split off from the Mountain View mothership in 2016, so perhaps it's just a coincidence. For its part, Jaguar Land Rover has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2039. "We are delighted to support this project as it aligns with our own journey to becoming an electric-first business and achieving net zero carbon by 2039. Partnerships like this are one of the ways we can achieve our sustainability goals and make a positive impact on society," said Elena Allen, Project Manager for Business Development at JLR. Google and Aclima have collected over 100 million air quality data points since the project, called Google Project Air View, launched six years ago. Last year, Google made this data freely available to the scientific community. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. We answered your questions about the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace