British brand has committed to a complete change of climate with its product range, but the local timeline remains a mystery.

HOW much longer new combustion engined Jaguars will continue to avail to Kiwis seems to be a sensitive subject for the national distributor.

The British sporting brand’s head office last week confirmed transition to full electric is now signed off, with intent to offer just battery electric cars by 2025.

The big break from its fossil fuelled product will occur in June, when it ceases production of all internal combustion models, including hybrids.

The parent has expressed thought retirement of those cars from individual markets will be gradual, the timeline determined by how long it takes for stocks to exhaust.

Presumably that’s the case for Jaguar New Zealand, but it has declined to clarify what this means here.

Questions put to the Auckland office on Monday, via its local public relations agency, Special Group, were forwarded first to the regional headquarters, in Singapore, then onto the global team in the United Kingdom, with two requests for more time to provide a response granted.

Yet by the last deadline, midday today, however, no word had come. 

Jaguar’s new electric push is an all-out effort, with a nine-figure development cost. Jaguar high-ups believe it offers the best and only way forward. 

Ultimately three new models will emerge, all sharing a new battery-pure called JEA - for Jaguar Electric Architecture. 

These cars are unrelated to the current sole Jaguar EV, the I-Pace, which is set to leave production within a year.

The I-Pace has been in New Zealand for five years, a period in which it secured the national car of the year title, for 2019, becoming the first all-electric to take the NZ Motoring Writers’ Guild prize.

The I-Pace has been a marginal seller and, latterly, the electric vehicle market has fallen into doldrum.

Jaguar NZ’s overall passenger volume is also slight, trailing not only the traditional German opposition but also Lexus, the Japanese marque that also continues to be overshadowed by Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz.

Jaguar UK has acknowledged the battery-wed strategy won’t appeal to all brand fans and will hurt sales internationally. 

It recently told British publication Autocar annual production could be reduced to just 50,000 units across the three upcoming models.

At present, six cars are still listed as being on sale and available in New Zealand – the XE and XF sedans, E-Pace and F-Pace crossovers (which provision with choice of hybrid format), F-Type roadster and coupe, and the I-Pace. 

Overseas reports say last customers for F-Type, the most popular choice for Kiwis over the past year, are having their orders built now.

Production will continue until June for the F-Pace, E-Pace and XF. The I-Pace, built under contract in Austria by Magna Steyr, will end production last, most likely sometime early next year. 

The first battery-electric model will be a four seater grand tourer, is expected to arrive within 2024 and predicted to be on-sale by 2025. 

It will come with an estimated base price of $NZ165k and will feature upwards of 428kW available - making it the most powerful Jaguar yet - with an approximate range of 692 kilometres.

Jaguar almost built something similar a few years ago wit the fully electric XJ large luxury sedan, but it was canceled in 2021 after most of the development work was finished, costing the company a “nine-figure cost,” according to overseas media.

It’s believed the new EV will be completely unrelated to the canceled model, with styling managed by long-time Land Rover design chief Gerry McGovern.

A second EV is due to arrive in late 2025, and a third in 2026.

In the coming months, the company’s UK Castle Bromwich plant, where F-Type, XF, and XE are built, will transition to producing body panels for all of the brand’s models after vehicle production ends.