The Jaguar has decided to develop a bespoke EV platform, named Panthera, that will allow its upcoming electric vehicles to be any size that can be imagined.
Jaguar Land Rover is troubled by the general downturn in the United Kingdom’s economy, supply shortages related to Brexit, supply shortages related to COVID, and some unfortunately shoddy quality control lately. Still, it’s decided to build its own EV platform, taking on all the expenses of that, so it can do what it wants in terms of size. Also, Jaguar aims to be entirely electric by 2025 as part of JLR’s Reimagine plan.
Autocar reported that the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, Thierry Bolloré, told investors on a call that “Concerning the new Jaguar, we’re making unique proportion a priority. That’s the reason why, at the moment, we do it by ourselves.”
Jaguar had been previously thinking of buying into a shared platform with another automaker to save on design costs. However, the desire to make vehicles in a range of sizes—which will definitely include big ones—has prevailed as a priority.
The concept of Panthera is to create an EV platform that creates a commonality of parts between Jaguar’s electric cars. “The new control points, the batteries, the electric motors, the software—on-board, off-board—all that is creating real scale,” according to Bolloré.
Now, where will the I-Pace go? It will be on its own, mostly. It’s not being disowned or just left in the market as is. In fact, it will always be on an island, away from the Panthera-based main range in the future.
Even though the new cars will share parts, they’ll be “distinct,” said Bolloré, “with no overlap.” They will be “really modern luxury cars that are the copy of nothing in style or design, the top of technology and refinement, but not looking backward.”
