Jaguar launches electric version of the E-type
Jaguar is reviving a classic car for the electric era, as it launches the E-type Zero, a modern version of “the world’s most beautiful car”. Expected to retail at nearly £300,000, the car is being unveiled at the Jaguar Land Rover Tech Festival at Central Saint Martins College, London, today.
JAGUAR is reviving classic cars for the electric era, as it launches the “E-type Zero”, a modern-day version of what was once dubbed as “the world’s most beautiful car”.
The car, which is expected to cost nearly £300,000, is being unveiled at the Jaguar Land Rover Tech Festival at Central Saint Martins College today.
It comes as the luxury car firm has said it will electrify all new car models brought on to the market from 2020, effectively banning petrol and diesel models. The E-type Zero is a remake of the E-type, which was first launched in 1961, and has since regularly been voted as the best-looking car of all time. Even rival car maker Enzo Ferrari called it “the most beautiful car ever made”.
The E-type Zero drives and looks like an E-type and despite its electric engine is quicker than an original Etype, managing 0-100km/h in 5.5 seconds, about a second quicker than an original E-type.
Whereas the original model harnessed the roar of a 3.8-litre six-cylinder engine, its modern-day equivalent uses a quiet-running 40 kwh battery, which can be recharged from home overnight in around seven hours.
Car experts said the re-invigoration of classic designs for the new age of electric cars could help generate interest in electric versions among driving enthusiasts who had previously snubbed the idea.
James Baggott, editor in chief of Car Dealer magazine, said: “One of the main things that is putting people off switching to electric cars is that they look like electric cars. A lot of people do not like the slightly wacky look, so the idea of creating something classically beautiful could really catch on. It could kickstart electric cars for a new generation and spark a new era of car design.”
Electric car sales, excluding hybrids, rose by 60 per cent in August compared with the same month in 2016, industry data showed. However, the total number of electric cars registered last month is still very small at just 476, up from 293 in 2016.
BMW and Volvo have recently announced a push into electrified vehicles. BMW said that by 2025 it plans to have 12 all-electric models on the market, as well as 13 hybrid versions. Its first electric car will be released in 2019, a year after Jaguar’s first model. The E-type Zero will be Jaguar Land Rover’s second electric car as it comes after the unveiling of the I-pace, its first all-electric five-seater sports car.
According to Atsushi Horiba, the car industry expert who exposed the VW emissions scandal, electric vehicles will never make up more than a third of cars worldwide. It is unfeasible to build the scale of infrastructure to enable batterypowered cars, he said earlier this week.
He said: “The UK has the intellect, imagination and ideas – it always has. But history tells us often that it has failed on delivery. In this new mobility revolution, if there is not a nimbleness in response, the danger of failure is too harsh to contemplate.”