The cat is out of the bag: Jaguar will end its internal combustion era in June this year.
Jaguar has confirmed to Automotive News Europe the company’s Castle Bromwich plant, on the outskirts of Birmingham, will stop vehicle production by June, with the facility transitioning to becoming a body panel stamping factory.
Castle Bromwich currently manufactures the F-Type coupe and convertible, XE sedan, and XF sedan and wagon.
XF
Jaguar’s other mainstream cars are made elsewhere, with the F-Pace SUV made at the company’s factory in Solihull – about 12 kilometres down the road from Castle Bromwich – while manufacturing of the smaller E-Pace SUV is contracted out to Magna Steyr in Austria.
The automaker told the trade publication only three internal combustion cars – the XF, E-Pace, and F-Pace – are scheduled to stay in production until June. The electric I-Pace will be the last vehicle in the current range to end production, with Magna Steyr set to make this model until early 2025.
Joe Eberhardt, head of Jaguar Land Rover in North America, told Road & Track that while the “majority of our products cease production in June” these vehicles “will be on sale for a much longer time [as] we will have a production schedule that enables us to have a continuous supply of vehicles until the new cars come”.
The Tata-owned British automaker hopes to ensure a “clean handover” to a new generation of much more expensive electric vehicles.
F-Pace
Jaguar is planning to launch three cars based on the brand’s bespoke JEA architecture. The first is a four-door model design to compete with the Porsche Taycan, and is scheduled to be unveiled this year before going on sale in 2025.
An earlier Autocar report indicated the new four-door Jaguar will have a dual-motor all-wheel drive setup with around 430kW of power, a driving range of about 690km, and a starting price in the UK in excess of £100,000 ($194,000).
For reference, the most expensive base models in the Jaguar range today are the £67,355 ($130,700) F-Type and £69,995 ($135,800) I-Pace.
Next year Jaguar will reveal a crossover pitched at the Bentley Bentayga, and depending on which source you believe, the brand’s revamped range will be rounded with either a second crossover or a range-topping sedan.
By shifting into the market space inhabited by the likes of Bentley and Rolls-Royce, Jaguar expects annual sales to drop to around 50,000 cars per year.
It will be interesting to see whether the brand will be able to reach this figure given in 2023, with its much more affordable range of vehicles, Jaguar managed to sell just 64,241 vehicles worldwide, eclipsed by Land Rover which sold 356,343 vehicles across its Defender, Range Rover, and Discovery sub-brands.
In Australia, Jaguar sold 581 cars last year, behind the likes of Maserati (681), Alfa Romeo (716), and Genesis (1916).
