With all the chatter around Apple’s rumoured autonomous vehicle and Tesla sending the price of Bitcoin into the stratosphere, automakers are going to have to make massive claims in order to attract attention.
As it so happens we have just such a claim in front of us today.
Jaguar Land Rover has announced that by 2025, its range of Jaguar vehicles will be fully electric. Even more impressive is the firm’s promise that by 2030, 60 percent of Land Rover’s sold will be electric.
This is part of what Jaguar Land Rover chief executive officer Thierry Bolloré calls the Reimagine strategy.
“Jaguar Land Rover is unique in the global automotive industry. Designers of peerless models, an unrivalled understanding of the future luxury needs of its customers, emotionally rich brand equity, a spirit of Britishness and unrivalled access to leading global players in technology and sustainability within the wider Tata Group,” Bolloré said in a statement.
“We are harnessing those ingredients today to reimagine the business, the two brands and the customer experience of tomorrow. The Reimagine strategy allows us to enhance and celebrate that uniqueness like never before. Together, we can design an even more sustainable and positive impact on the world around us,” the exec added.
Further to a fleet of electric vehicles, the firm is also targeting 2039 as the year to meet a target of net zero carbon emissions across the Jaguar Land Rover supply chain.
“As part of this ambition, the company is also preparing for the expected adoption of clean fuel-cell power in line with a maturing of the hydrogen economy. Development is already underway with prototypes arriving on UK roads within the next 12 months as part of the long-term investment programme,” the firm said in a press release
Of course, this strategy won’t come cheap and the firm is investing approximately £2.5 billion into “electrification technologies and the development of connected services”.
On that last point, Jaguar Land Rover already has a “connected service” in PIVOTAL. This subscription service let’s you drive a new Jag or Land Rover once every six months. The service has proved successful in the UK and it’s now being rolled out to other countries.
We’re curious to see whether Jaguar especially, is able to reach its own target. While stating that all vehicles will be electric by 2025 Jaguar now has the unenviable task of insuring those vehicles have the infrastructure to support them across a wide range of territories.
While this is achievable in places like the UK, we have to wonder whether Jaguar Land Rover is looking to places like South Africa where its vehicles are popular but electric transport is still years away from being viable.
