Jaguar car brand to be all-electric by 2025
Jaguar Land Rover's Jaguar
brand will be all-electric by 2025, the carmaker has said.
The company will launch electric models
of its entire Jaguar and Land Rover line-up by 2030, it added.
The firm said it would keep all three
of its three British plants open as part of its new strategy.
But it has dropped plans to build an
electric version of its XJ saloon at the Castle Bromwich plant, meaning the
site will eventually stop making cars.
Chief executive Thierry Bolloré said
the plant would focus instead on "non-production" activities in the
long term, without giving details.
The company plans to spend about £2.5bn
a year on new technology for its cars.
This is a big move for Jaguar Land Rover, but
the reality is it has little choice.
Like other manufacturers, it is under pressure
to reduce the CO2 emissions from its fleet, as new regulations come into force
in Europe and elsewhere. At the same time, sales of diesels - which generally
produce less CO2 than petrol engines - have been plummeting.
And in the longer term, the UK government
wants to outlaw the sale of all wholly petrol and diesel cars from 2030.
Governments in other countries are moving in the same general direction.
The problem is, electric cars cost more to
design and build than conventional models, meaning it is currently hard to make
a profit from them. Bigger manufacturers can throw money at the problem now,
and hope to benefit from economies of scale later.
JLR is a smaller company and can't do that -
so instead it will re-emphasise Jaguar's credentials as a luxury brand when it
goes all-electric.
That might make sense from a marketing point
of view, but making the sums add up looks like a steep challenge.
However, in order for them to be truly
environmentally friendly, the hydrogen itself needs to be produced using
renewable sources.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the
announcement was "a huge step for British car manufacturing".
Carmakers are under pressure to meet stringent
carbon emission demands in Europe and China, as well as customer demand for
high-performance electric cars with a luxury or performance feel.
The UK plans to ban the sale of new petrol and
diesel cars from 2030.
Luxury car brand Bentley Motors, owned by
Germany's Volkswagen, said in November its range will be fully electric by
2030, and last month General Motors said it aimed to have a zero tailpipe
emission line-up by 2035.
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