Jaguar Pushes Forward With an Electric Crossover

2017 Jaguar F-Pace (Credit: © Jaguar )

There have been rumors that Jaguar Land Rover is working on creating an electric crossover to do battle with the Tesla Model X. These rumors have been on and off for some time now, as the two brands decide which nameplate it will fall under and if there will be enough interest in it. Now, a new report from Automobile Magazine lends some credence to the rumors and adds a little clarity.

According to the report, the final product will fall under Jaguar’s umbrella, which is a little odd, considering the brand’s first electric drive units were in Land Rover concepts. This electric crossover, reportedly dubbed the E-Pace (a “creative” play on the recently revealed F-Pace), will use a low and sleek silhouette to drop its drag down to 0.28. If JLR can achieve this number, this would make the E-Pace one of the slipperiest crossovers ever built.

The report continues to make light of Jaguar’s plans to have Magna Steyr in Graz, Australia handle the manufacturing side of Jag’s first EV. It also claims that Jaguar would need to sell 20,000 units of the E-Pace to make a profit. That requirement seems a little lofty for a company that sold just shy of 16,000 vehicles in all of 2014 and is on pace to shrink to fewer than 15,000 units sold this year.

I hope for the best results for the E-Pace, as I feel that electric crossovers would do great things for fuel prices and the environment, but I can’t see one vehicle outselling Jag’s entire lineup. Especially not an electric vehicle. I guess we will get a preview of how well this model will sell with the release of the F-Pace, but I am not holding my breath.

Reports indicate that we could see this crossover by 2020, so keep it locked here for the latest updates.