If Jag (JLR) does an electric sports car...are you in?
 

So while I really appreciate Chevy's Z06, I'm a bit more enamored of the E-Ray with its V8 plus electric boost option. Point being, while I like the sturm and drang my R brings to the table, but am completely open to an entirely different performance option....as long as it retains and expands on "grace, space (ummm...don't care about that), and pace". I'm sort of in a "what's next" after the F-Type frame of mind. I realize Jag's going all in on electric and has talked about some variation of 4 doors (SUV...maybe sedan) for its next big phase, but I'm intrigued by the idea of a beautiful, high performance electric Jag sports car. Just curious if I'm an outlier. Anyone have an opinion?

I'm with you on the high performance sports car - I hate SUVs. Trouble is Jaguar is one of those endangered species - I hope the rebrand works out.

I'm not convinced that electric cars are the right long term solution. There are a few different ways to get to very low emissions and there are a herd of elephants in the room when discussing EV shortfalls.

In no particular order:

Let's say I'm staying the night in San Francisco. Where do I charge?
Let's say I'm staying the night in Paso Robles at an AirBNB. Where do I charge?
Let's say I live in an apartment. Where do I change?
What do I do with the car when the battery has gone through its useful life? What happens to the batteries?
Let's say on a major holiday, many people are travelling from LA to NorCal. What happens when too many people stop off and the line to charge is over a mile long?
Charging to full takes much longer than the EV companies advertise. That Tesla supercharge they brag about? It only takes the car to about 80% charge. The final 20% takes much, much longer.
Let's not get started on how bad cold weather and mountains limit the range.

I leased an EV for three years. The first year was great. I charged for free at my work. I could count on a charger at many places. Fast forward about a year and a half and there were 13 cars fighting for 9 chargers at my work. I would rarely find open chargers anywhere in the wild and I could no longer take my EV to Giant's games because I would not have a place to charge. By the time my lease was up. I was completely turned off to EVs.

I use my F-Type for fun trips. Some are beyond the range of any EV and during my last trip to Paso Robles. There is no EV on the market that could have taken me from my house to the AirBNB where we stayed. I stopped for gas once on 46 (not far from where James Dean died) and when I got to my AirBNB, things were all good. I spent the weekend running around going to different wineries and had no stress. Of all the places I stopped, only one had an EV charger, and it was taken. Had I been in an EV, the weekend would have been full of range anxiety. Sure, I could have brought a 110 unit and plugged into one of the outlets at the airbnb, but that would be a very slow charge and I would not be at full juice during the entire weekend.

I'll pass on a Jag EV, and any other EV for that matter, until I have so much disposable income that I can drop a large chunk of change on a car that I'll only use for limited trips.

I'd have to wait to see the car, but expect the answer is no. First of all, I doubt such a car will come. Jaguar is a small company and they have their hands full transitioning the rest of the product line to EV's. I don't think they have the resources (people,skills,money) to add a sports car to the mix. Certainly, the expected volume for such a sports car is limited, and the only motivation would be to serve as a brand flagship - like the F-Type did. Performance distinction (at least in straight-line terms) will be hard to achieve when everyone and his brother is putting out EV's. Combine that with Jaguar's aspiration to move upscale to compete with Bentley and Maybach, and I think you be targeting something in the $250k+ range. And, while I could afford to write the check, I'd really have to ask myself - why?

I have an open mind, but I am still stuck in the mindset that you need gears of some sort and decent sound for a fun car, the concept of just a very fast car doesnt hold a lot of appeal for me, or at least not the kind of appeal that would make me spend a lot of money particularly where I am not using tech past about 2018 standard. That said, Jags are usually setting the benchmark with looks, and I do get excited about a good looking car.

At the moment this little guy has piqued my interest. I wouldnt be an early adopter, but it has gears and sound, and they are actually quite a handsome car.

Lotus (Geely, $38 Bn) is far smaller and they are launching 3 models in the next 4 years. Jaguar has a parent with the resources (Tata, $128 Bn) to make it happen there too, but will they act on it?

I would be interested in a Jaguar EV sports car as well. Technology always moves forward in one way or another. In the case of EVs, the infrastructure must catch up as it did for petrol powered cars a hundred years ago.

Looking at what Jaguar can do in the Formula E series with technology development, I believe it's very possible for them to design and build an entertaining road going sports car.

Hoping for synthetic fuel.

Jaguar shoudl have kept the F-type going as an ICE and perhaps done the cx16 hybrid thing.....the zf8hp70 is able to do the electric boost motor....... Not a new idea.

I couldn't justify spending a quarter of my retirement fund on a toy so I'm unlikely to buy one from Jaguar anyway, but I have a little experience with custom-made EVs that would discourage me even if I could. Where I work, we have a mixed fleet of CNG and electric buses. Total operating costs per mile for our BEBs for the month of May were 2.22535x higher than for our CNG buses. Electricity is about 2 cents per mile cheaper, but the problem with the electric is that repair costs are much, much higher than for regular piston engined buses. Its always a battery cell or some kind of electronic component that goes out. It takes our highest-trained technician a couple of days online with a factory tech support team to decode what's wrong with it and then it takes two to three months that the vehicle is down from the time we order the part before it arrives. Parts aren't just sitting on a dusty warehouse shelf somewhere. We order it and the manufacturer has to make another one. I imagine that's what life would be like with a totally bespoke, $250,000, practically one-off, Jaguar electric sports car. Good luck with that.

I have trouble with the idea of an "electric sports car".
To me the terms electric and sports car are mutually exclusive, an oxymoron.
A sports car needs gears and exhaust noise, an electric car has neither unless they are artificially created.
So no, zero chance I would ever buy an EV of any type or brand let alone a so-called sports car.

So you don't consider the Taycan to be a sports car?

No I don't for the reasons stated above.
Of course everyone has their own definition of "sports car" and many probably most would be different to mine.
Some would say that my F-Type is not a sports car because it has an auto trans rather than a manual and it is too heavy.
Disclaimer - I have never driven a Porsche let alone a Taycan, if I drove one it is possible I would change my mind but I doubt it.

No thanks. My 2018 F Type R goes 0-60 in about 3.5 seconds. I haven't tracked it but there hasn't been a single time since I bought it (new) that I wished I had something faster. Is a Jaguar electric sports car going to handle better? Unlikely. Is the interior going to be worth the significant price bump? Really unlikely. In a couple of years I'm probably going to be ready for something else, but TBH I'm far more interested in the new Lotus Emira than I am looking at any future Jaguar.

See this article from a few months ago: https://www.carscoops.com/2023/04/ja...rice-for-2025/
Kind of a cross between an F-Type and an XJ and more a GT than a sports car especially if it turns out to be a four door.
Still a pure EV so a no go for me and waaay out of my price range seeing as new Jags in Oz go for around three times the Brit pound figure ie 100k pounds translates to 300k Oz dollars after exchange rate, taxes and shipping etc.

I can live with artificial gears and sound, but then I quite enjoy sim racing so I suppose I am half way there. My missus' XE has artificial sound in dynamic, it actually sounds pretty genuine and does enhance driving engagement. But I think it is more a thing that I could live with them if I had no substitute.

I drove a Taycan 4S and while it was fast, it wasn't nearly as fun as my F-Type. I still want to row my gears, too

Thanks, I hadn't see the Carscoops article...seems like a an attractive proposition...sort of a BMW four door coupe thing that have done more than OK in the market...might be a nice compromise.

As a Jaguar enthusiast for over 60 years my answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT. I will not own any electric vehicle and will, somehow, continue with the vehicles which I own , or similar ones.

My wife owned an Audi e-tron for a year. The only reason we bought it was when they initially hit the market they weren't moving so Audi offered an amazing lease deal, so we pulled the trigger. About 11 months later, the dealership called us with $15K cash if we gave it back. No brainer. That said, the e-tron changed my mind about the electric thing if you have the right use case (local travel, charge at home), but it was simply too damned heavy. I'm hoping more energy dense/lighter batteries will come soon to make a sports car viable.

Spent some time in a Taycan, and to me, it's exactly what I hope Jag doesn't do. While it may have real over the road competence, it was sterile to the point of being forgettable. I think that the car's exterior looks and interior (especially) were unremarkable and the drive felt "fast" but detached. Not the solution for me as a potential F-Type replacement.