Jaguar's new Panthera EV platform revealed

The carmaker has taken the more expensive route of making a platform to tailor it to the proportions of its future cars.

Published On Feb 02, 2022 11:22:00 AM

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Jaguar's new Panthera EV platform revealed

Jaguar’s new electric vehicle platform will be built in-house, the company has said, giving new details of its shift to an all-electric line-up from 2025 under Jaguar Land Rover’s Reimagine plan.

JLR CEO Thierry Bollore initially said the company would look externally for an EV platform suitable enough to underpin a range of upmarket electric Jaguars, but JLR is now working on its own platform, Bollore told investors.

JLR to shift to all electric from 2025
Carmaker shifting towards low-volume, high-value future
Jaguar plans to create distinct cars with no overlap

Bollore said that JLR cars need a platform that combines design proportions and capabilities not offered by other car makers, citing both the MLA High platform underpinning the new Range Rover and the future EMA platform for smaller Land Rovers.

“Concerning the new Jaguar, we're making unique proportion a priority. That’s the reason why at the moment we do it by ourselves,” Bollore said.

Chief financial officer Adrian Mardell said, “The new platform is called Panthera. ” Panthera is the scientific name for the genus of big cats that includes jaguars, tigers, lions and leopards.

JLR's decision to go it alone on the Jaguar platform rather than save money on development by buying in a platform is likely to be related to JLR’s chief designer Gerry McGovern’s requirement that the cars should look unique as the company takes the brand more towards Bentley territory in terms of pricing.

On the investor call, Bollore said that JLR is looking at significantly commonalising elements across all future JLR platforms as it moves to a lower-volume, higher-value future. “The new control points, the batteries, the electric motors, the software – on-board, off-board – all that is creating real scale,” he said.

“The proportions are crucial to get what we want from Jaguar,” Bolloré told Autocar last year. “The platform is a consequence of proportions we’ve decided on. They’re absolutely bespoke.”

Bollore explained that the plan for Jaguar is to create “distinct cars 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 backwards”.

JLR is currently behind on pure-electric sales, with the Jaguar I-Pace accounting for just three percent of sales for the company in the last financial quarter ending December 31, 2021.