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Mercedes-Benz EQC vs. Jaguar I-Pace vs. Tesla Model X: How they compare on paper

The Mercedes-Benz EQ line is officially alive and kicking, with the reveal of the EQC electric crossover. It joins a segment that, while still in its infancy, seems ready to take off. Mercedes lists as the EQC's competitors the Jaguar I-Pace, The Audi E-Tron Quattro and the BMW iX3. While we've seen all of these, at least in concept or pre-production form, only one — the Jag — has actually been launched in production form. We've seen a concept and subsequent spy shots of the iX3, and the Audi EV will get its official specs publicized later this month. One electric SUV Mercedes didn't specifically call out was the Tesla Model X. As such, we've decided to compare on paper the Mercedes-Benz EQC 400, the Jaguar I-Pace S and the Tesla Model X 75D: All three are dual-motor EVs, though the Tesla is the longest and tallest. The EQC has the most power, but it and the Model X's 4.9-second 0-60 times fall short of the I-Pace. It also has the lowest top speed and electric driving range. (Mercedes sent us an updated range figure, but it's using the generous and largely outdated NEDC cycle; we're still waiting on an EPA rating.) We'll be interested to see how much the Mercedes weighs. Mercedes hasn't divulged the price of the EQC yet, but we imagine it'll fall pretty near to the $70,000 mark. As for Audi, we'll revisit this comparison after those details are made available on September 17. If you're interested in some other EV comparisons, we have a couple others that we published to compare the I-Pace to premium Teslas, as well as against other less-expensive EVs. If you want to learn more about these EVs, and compare them with other cars, be sure to check out our Car Finder and comparison tools. Related Video: Featured Gallery Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 EV Crossover View 28 Photos Green Jaguar Mercedes-Benz Tesla Crossover SUV Electric Luxury Comparison jaguar i-pace mercedes-benz eqc

Jaguar Land Rover undergoes $3.2 billion turnaround plan as sales slump

MUMBAI — India's Tata Motors on Wednesday announced a turnaround plan for its luxury car unit Jaguar Land Rover, which has been hit hard by trade tensions between China and the U.S., low demand for diesel cars in Europe and worries over Brexit. Under "Project Charge," Tata Motors said it plans to cut costs and improve cash flows at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) by 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) over 18 months. JLR also plans to launch several new vehicles, including the Jaguar I-Pace and the new Range Rover Defender over the next few years and will offer a hybrid or full-electric version of all its models by 2020. "Together with our ongoing product offensive and calibrated investment plans, these efforts will lay the foundations for long-term sustainable growth," JLR CEO Ralf Speth said after Tata Motors reported a quarterly loss. JLR has trimmed its pre-tax profit expectations for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, and expects to break even, Speth said, versus an earlier target of profit growth. As part of the turnaround plan, JLR will first focus on cash-saving "quick wins" like reducing non-product investments and speeding up asset sales, Tata Motors said in an investor presentation. In the near term it will improve efficiency in areas including purchasing and material cost, manufacturing, logistics and people, and will focus on strategic and non-core asset sales. JLR has already reduced the number of production days at its UK plants in Castle Bromwich and Solihull. The company said in its presentation it has saved 300 million pounds since it initiated the turnaround plan six weeks ago and is working on 500 ideas for the future. Tata Motors reported a loss of 10.49 billion rupees ($141.9 million) for the July-September quarter, compared with a profit of 24.83 billion rupees in the year-ago period. That was worse than the estimate of a loss of 2.40 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data. JLR reported a loss of 101 million pounds during the quarter and its margin on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 130 basis points to 9.9 percent. Retail sales of its Jaguar sedans and Land Rover sport utility vehicles (SUVs) fell 13.2 percent to about 130,000 units, hurt particularly by tariff changes in China and escalating trade tensions. Demand in China remained muted even after the country cut import tariffs for cars and car parts to 15 percent for most vehicles from 25 percent from July.

Jaguar XJ electric sedan debut pushed to late 2021

Jaguar's been testing prototypes of the coming all-electric XJ sedan for a while now, an example we saw earlier this year testing in the cold having reached an advanced stage. The plan had been to launch the battery-powered flagship fastback this year, with sales to commence early 2021. A report in The Sunday Times says that plan has changed, Jaguar pushing the XJ back to the third quarter of next year while the automaker focuses on its finances and its most profitable models. The site FormaCar reports, "The presentation date on the official website now reads, 'October 2021,'" but we haven't found that XJ-specific page. In response to questions about the Jaguar canceling the XJ, a spokesperson responded, "Our engineers continue to work on the next-generation all-electric Jaguar XJ. We remain committed to our long-term strategy and our product portfolio remains the same, but the unprecedented situation will inevitably have an impact on our immediate plans." The Jaguar Land Rover group, coming off a string of deep losses during 2018 and 2019, was working through a cost-cutting and turnaround plan when Covid-19 hammered the global economy. The whispered concern among outsiders is that Jaguar will drop the XJ entirely, but that doesn't appear to be the case for now. The automaker cut thousand of jobs while investing more than a billion pounds into its Castle Bromwich factory to prepare for electric-car assembly. At the moment, Castle Bromwich normally builds the XE and XF sedans, those offerings also in flux while Jaguar reportedly considers turning one or both of them into a small hatchback or a compact plug-in hybrid sedan. We write "normally" because the factory was put on pause to deal with Covid lockdowns, and isn't scheduled to restart until August 14. And above all of this, JLR is on the hunt for a new CEO to replace Ralf Speth. We've been expecting the new sedan to open the book on mainstream luxury EVs, the same way the I-Pace did for SUVs, but it appears that won't happen. The electric XJ will come on the Modular Longitudinal Architecture, and we've understood the specs include a 90.2-kWh battery pack, the same size as the I-Pace pack. There have been rumors about a four-motor setup, but odds favor a twin-motor arrangement. The motors in the I-Pace produce 394 horsepower and 512 pound-feet of torque. For an XJ flagship, we'd expect an even more powerful option in the range.