1970 Jaguar Xke Roadster Beautifully Restored California Car Priced To Sell on 2040-cars

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Weekly Recap: The divergent paths of Tesla and Fisker

There's no doubt that Tesla is downshifting while Fisker has been grinding its gears. But it wasn't always that way.
In the wake of Tesla's recent success, it's easy to forget that there were once two California electric carmakers with bright futures.

Jaguar Land Rover is going to call itself 'JLR' and spin off brands

Embracing the current popular philosophy that less is more, the executives at Jaguar Land Rover plan to officially rename their company “JLR” and to create a new “house of brands” that will emphasize name equity and refocus its vehicle offerings. In simple terms, the British-based, India-owned company will split into four separate brands: Range Rover, Discovery, Defender and Jaguar. While this shift may appear to be essentially a function of marketing and dealership bookkeeping, the over-arching reason is to give some of the brands more visibility. Details of the plan, which would reconfigure showrooms in Britain into discrete brand footprints, were discussed this week at a presentation by JLR CEO Adrian Mardell. “The reality is Range Rover is a brand and so is Defender,’” said creative officer Gerry McGovern. “Customers say they own a Range Rover. In luxury, you need absolute clarity. Land Rover Range Rover SV Autobiography doesnÂ’t give it. We love Land Rover, but there isn't as much equity as Range Rover, and Defender is increasing massively.”  Underlying the effort is plans to reinvent Jaguar as an electric-only luxury brand, Mardell said that this was “unfinished business” for him since he joined Jaguar 32 years ago. “The Jaguar of 32 years ago is where weÂ’re going back to and the right place for us to be." He further acknowledged that JLR had been “quiet” recently in the face of semiconductor chip shortages, but allowed that that situation was easing at his company.

Nearly-ready electric Jaguar XJ gets scrapped even as JLR announces its EV push

A smattering of news from Jaguar Land Rover landed this morning concerning the brands’ electric futures. One sentence partway through JaguarÂ’s long press release caught our eye, though, and it has to do with the Jaguar XJ. “Although the nameplate may be retained, the planned Jaguar XJ replacement will not form part of the lineup, as the brand looks to realize its unique potential,” the press release states. If youÂ’ve been following Jaguar XJ news, youÂ’d know that Jaguar planned on making the next-generation XJ a fully electric car. ItÂ’s been in development for several years. Jaguar has been talking it up pre-reveal, and weÂ’ve even spied the car out testing a couple times. We were expecting a debut event for this new electric XJ to happen any time now. Theoretically, it should fit in perfectly with JaguarÂ’s vision to sell 100% electric cars by 2030, right? Apparently not, because itÂ’s dead. We contacted Jaguar to get a better explanation for what is going on here. Jaguar XJ 1 View 10 Photos When queried, a spokesperson sent us this in response: “Following a thorough technology review against the exponential change in the automotive industry, we concluded that the planned XJ replacement does not fit with our vision for a re-imaged Jaguar brand. We have made the tough decision that it will not form part of the lineup, as the brand looks to realize its unique potential. However, the nameplate may be retained.” To make doubly sure that Jaguar is indeed throwing out a nearly-ready EV the same day it announces an all-EV future, we asked again, and Jaguar confirmed. “We were working on an XJ EV, but have moved on to a different approach for the entire Jaguar EV lineup vision based around a new unique Jaguar EV dedicated platform, all due in 2025,” a spokesperson sent us. So there you have it. The electric XJ was said to be built on the Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) platform, and Jaguar touted it as "the world's first, full-electric luxury sports saloon.” Now that thereÂ’s a new Jaguar-dedicated EV platform in the works, the XJ on the MLA platform is canned. We asked Jaguar for more details about the why of this situation, and the above, quoted explanation hints at it. Maybe the “technology review” found that the car Jag was putting together just didnÂ’t measure up to the competition? The new platform will certainly offer much better performance and range than JaguarÂ’s current technology is capable of.