Jaguar Land Rover has recently announced its new product strategy and now the British brand is looking for a partner to help develop a platform specifically for battery electric vehicles. A report from Automotive News Europe reveals that the company’s change in direction comes after it determined the MLA-mid platform that was already well into development wouldn’t allow vehicles underpinned by it to meet stricter emissions regulations.
As a result, the all-electric Jaguar XJ successor and a Land Rover EV have been axed. This was confirmed by Jaguar Land Rover chief financial officer Adrian Mardell during a call with analysts who also revealed the company will write off $1.4 billion in investments related to the canceled vehicles. Both models were going to be underpinned by the MLA-mid platform. Now, the only vehicles that will go on that architecture will be large Land Rover SUVs, including the upcoming Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, both of which are scheduled to debut in about 12 to 18 months.
The original plan outlined for both Jaguar and Land Rover was that the MLA platform was to underpin nearly every model from both brands by 2025. That architecture is able to support hybrids, plug-in hybrids, full-electric, and traditional internal combustion engines. Now, the new plan calls for Jaguar to become an all-electric brand by 2025 while Land Rover will focus only on EVs and hybrids. Smaller models in the Jaguar Land Rover lineup like the Evoque and E-Pace will use a new EMA platform, which can also support varying levels of electrification.
