England’s Prince Harry and Meghan Markle drove away from their royal wedding on May 19, their blue battery-powered Jaguar E-Type was one-of-a-kind. But following “an overwhelmingly positive reaction” to the concept vehicle, Jaguar says that it will go ahead and produce versions of the EV sports car for us commoners.
Jaguar displayed the latest version of what it calls the E-Type Zero in Bespoke Bronze at The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering in Monterey, Calif., last Friday, where it also announced the production version. The company is now taking orders for the E-Types, with deliveries to begin in the summer of 2020. Pricing and full technical specifications are forthcoming, but speculation places the car at around US$500,000.
“Jaguar’s marketing mantra in the 1960s was ‘grace, space, and pace.’ Nothing could add grace to an E-Type like having a silent electric motor,” Eric Evarts, editor of Green Car Reports, told Penta. “It will make the car about the most elegant ride anywhere, providing comfort and refinement to back up its looks. The gas engine gave these Jaguars refinement in the ’60s context, but today the gas engine just seems dirty and noisy and unbefitting of the E-Type’s stellar reputation.”
Instead of filling up with petrol, these E-Types will recharge in six or seven hours. ILLUSTRATION:JAGUAR PHOTO
The E-Type Zero will not be a recreation in the same mold as the James Bond DB5s recently announced by Aston Martin, or its own “continuation” D-Type, XKSS, and lightweight E-Type. Instead, the base will be from original cars restored by the company’s Classic Works division in Coventry, England, with electric drivetrains. The cars will accelerate faster than gas-powered E-Types, and will have a range above 170 miles, with a 40-kilowatt-hour battery with six- or seven-hour recharge times, presumably on 240 volts. In concept form, the electric Jaguar reaches 62 mph in 5.5 seconds.
In place of the original’s Moss manual gearbox will be a single-speed unit, controlled by a rotary dial, mated to the electric motor. Many components from the I-Pace electric car will be used on the electric E-Type, though the original brakes and suspension are retained. The cars’ structure will be unchanged, so it would be at least theoretically possible to convert one of these electrics back to gas power.
Jaguar says a lithium-ion battery pack will be used, sitting upfront, and with the same dimensions and weight as the original six-cylinder XK engine, preserving drivability. The electric motor (295 horsepower in the first concept car) will be positioned right behind the pack in the space once occupied by the gearbox. A driveshaft will send power to the rear wheels.
The concept version of the car is actually lighter than a standard 1968 E-Type. A lightweight carbon fiber dashboard undoubtedly helps.
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