UK’s JLR to go all-electric starting 2020

UK automaker Jaguar Land Rover announced today that it planned to introduce electric powertrain for all new cars beginning 2020. This would include the already announced Jaguar I-Pace EV and likely a future Land Rover Defender.

The company's announcement comes a week after fellow UK brand Aston Martin said it would electrify all of its cars by 2025.  Also, Sweden's Volvo had earlier said it would end gas-only vehicle production and introduce cars with some sort of sort of plug-in capability starting in 2019.

Commentators point out that all three companies were sold off by Ford in the late 2000s. All three of them also produce relatively few cars, unlike automotive giants like General Motors, Toyota, and Volkswagen. Electrifying everything is likely the best path to meet current emission requirements, as also those that will be introduced in the UK and France.

According to Jaguar Land Rover, the move was meant to offer consumers more choice by electrifying all of its future products, and that's probably fair. It may be possible to convince more buyers that a Range Rover with some batteries in it might be exactly what they need to negotiate Manhattan traffic.

The consumer-focused Jaguar I-Pace sports dual electric motors, that deliver 400 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. The 90 kWh battery can go 220 miles on a charge. According to commentators, the I-Pace will join the Tesla Model X as the only two all-electric crossovers on the market.

Considering the future of driving and car-ownership, Jaguar has also developed the Future-Type concept, a vision for the electric vehicle of 2040. According to the perspective the only part of a car owned by a consumer is the steering wheel, which has been named the Sayer after Malcolm Sayer, designer of the E-type.