No matter where you look in the auto industry these days, every automaker worth its salt is making plans for zero emissions vehicles. BMW wants a 25-percent share of the EV market by 2025. Toyota’s planning to “mass produce” EVs by 2020. That same year, Kia wants to launch 14 new alternative powertrain models. Today, fresh off of introducing the I-Pace Concept, Jaguar Land Rover has officially made its EV plans known, and it involves injecting close to $3.7 billion into research and development of EVs with the goal of creating electrified options for half of its entire lineup by 2020.
The ambitious goal is par for the course in a business where rivals like Mercedes (10 EVs by 2025) and Porsche (Mission E family of EV models) are doing something similar. That’s where the industry is headed, and JLR is making sure that it doesn’t get left behind.
A big part of the company’s plan is to push the development and expansion of its powertrain and design center in the UK. That not only involves doubling the facility’s actual size in the next few years, but also beefing up its workforce to accommodate the increased attention put into its future EVs. In some ways, the British automaker has already started in that road, investing close to $375 million in electrical engineering while also hiring more than 20,000 employees to go along with the 40,000-strong workforce it already has.
Just as important to this goal is the development of the I-Pace Concept, the electric SUV that was recently shown at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show. The model, according to Jaguar chief designer Ian Callum, is the “most important” Jaguar since the E-Type, a label that carries more than its fair share of pressure as the company’s first foray into the world of EVs.
Ultimately, Jaguar hopes to build on what it started with the I-Pace Concept and while it doesn’t have specific plans yet on the other models that will get electrified in some form or fashion, the long-term objective of having half of its models come with electrified options by 2020 has been set.
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from Top Speed http://ift.tt/2gCKbRk
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