Jaguar will relaunch with superfast EV with 'fearless' design

GAYDON, England -- The Jaguar brand will reinvent itself with the 2025 launch of a full-electric four-door GT model that will have "exuberant and fearless" styling, executives said.

The car will be the brand's fastest model to date and will cost more than 100,000 pounds ($124,200) as Jaguar moves more upscale into the ultraluxury space of brands such as Bentley. It will have a range of up to 700 km (434 miles).

Jaguar Land Rover is investing 1 billion pounds into developing a new platform called Jaguar Electrified Architecture (JEA) for future Jaguars as the brand shifts to selling only battery-electric cars after 2025.

In total, JLR is investing 15 billion pounds over the next five years into electrification for its Jaguar, Range Rover and Land Rover brands.

Jaguar Land Rover executives spoke about the automaker's plans for the storied Jaguar brand to reporters at the company's headquarters here on Wednesday.

The GT, the first new model of Jaguar's reinvention under its Project Renaissance, will have a "jaw dropping" design like no other electric model on the road today, Gerry McGovern, JLR's Chief Creative Officer, said.

"This will be a pivotal moment in Jaguar's history," he said.

Future Jaguars will tap into the iconic styling of models such as the E-Type but they will be radically reimagined, McGovern said. "They will shock and they will be fearless," he said.

Jaguar engineers and designers have been working on the brand's future EV lineup over the past two years.

Three design teams built 18 models to explore designs for Jaguar's future models, McGovern said.

The design brief was inspired by Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons' ethos that the brand's cars "should be a copy of nothing," McGovern said. This philosophy was exemplified by the E-Type, which "looked like it dropped from outer space," McGovern said.

Asked if the design of Jaguar's cars in recent years had been a failure, McGovern said they had not been. The designs "were not bad, but previous designs were aimed at a more mainstream customer base," he said.

The GT will be the first of three all-new electric Jaguars. It will go on sale in selected markets next year, with deliveries to customers in 2025.