2015 Jaguar Xj L Portfolio Awd Back Seat Premium Package New Timing Chains Kit on 2040-cars

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How and why Jaguar designed an electric SUV

Adrian Belew, front man of famed progressive rock band King Crimson and collaborator with Bowie, Zappa, and the Talking Heads, released a prescient song in 1982, but we didn't know exactly how prophetic it was until this week. The song was titled Big Electric Cat, and its lyrics seemed to predict nearly 35 years ago the unveiling of Jaguar's first all-electric vehicle, a production-ready crossover concept with the not-so-ingenious name, I-Pace. She arrives like a limo/Smooth and moving/On the prowl through the crowd/To the beat of the city/She glows in the dark/Wherever she parks/Concrete crumbles and the night rumbles. At first glimpse of the I-Pace, you may not have precisely the same feeling of disintegration as the roadbed Belew mentions, but there is no denying that the new Jag is important for the brand. Flush with investment from its corporate overlords at Tata, the company is on its most robust product offensive ever, rounding out its lineup to become a full-range manufacturer, investing in autonomous driving and projective head-up technologies, nearly doubling global sales, and now going electric. "This is probably the most important car since the E-Type, I really mean that," says Jaguar director of design Ian Callum. "And when we get this car out into production and it gains recognition and popularity, I think history will show it's a significant step for the brand. Not only because we're embracing the future, quite openly and honestly, but because we're going to beat the rest of them. Tesla is there already, but none of the rest." As a challenger brand – one not in the top of mind consideration set like rivals at Mercedes, Audi, or Lexus – Jaguars are made or broken on this kind of differentiation. The I-Pace is certainly distinctive, and looks like nothing else on the road. Like many contemporary Jaguars, its rear three-quarter view is its most compelling, with the slender half-round taillights inspired by the legendary E-Type that were first revived on the F-Type and have since become a signature. But here, the rear end is shaved off and in an angular concavity that seems an effort to take as much mass as possible out of the back, and one that echoes elsewhere on the vehicle: in the scalloped sides, in the continuous path of glass from the base of the front windshield to (almost) the base of the rear liftgate. But especially in the foreshortened and deep-nostriled hood.

2013 Jaguar XFR-S

Why Ask Questions When You Already Know The Answer?
"Is it fast?"
We get that question a lot. Several times a month, in fact, and it comes from every corner of our lives - friends, family, complete strangers and even colleagues from time to time. And it's an understandable query. After all, speed, either in a straight line or around a twisty bit of tarmac, is a universally accepted line of demarcation between the typical family sedan and something much more fun and therefore desirable.

2014 Jaguar XFR-S Sportbrake

We'd consider giving up vital organs for the opportunity to drive any number of vehicles on the Nürburgring: supercars, racecars, track cars, even hot hatches... but a station wagon? That might not seem like a top choice at first blush, but this is no ordinary wagon. This is the Jaguar XFR-S Sportbrake.
Now if that name leaves you scratching your head, there are several good reasons for that - not least of which is the unfortunate reality that, unlike so many performance-oriented crossovers and sport-utes, the Sportbrake is not offered in North America. But suppose it were, or that weren't a factor. You'd likely still be left wondering how the name Jaguar ended up on a station wagon in the first place, and how that machine wound up bearing the letters R-S, the suffix affixed only to Coventry's most hardcore performance models.
Our brief story goes back a little over two years to when Jaguar revealed the XF Sportbrake at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, giving its mid-level sedan an elongated roof and added cargo capacity. The Sportbrake may not be the first wagon to wear the Leaping Cat badge, but following the lamentable X-Type Sportwagon, it could be argued that the XF is the first authentic Jag estate.