Jaguar Classic confirms electric E-type

Jaguar has confirmed that their 2017 concept electric E-Type will go into serial production and that current owners can bring in their E-Type to install an electric motor. This follows “overwhelmingly positive” feedback for their original concept.

++ Kindly find all updates to this article below. ++

The new E-Type was made possible by combining their in-house restoration expertise with technology from the I-Pace. The vehicles are being built and converted in the English factory in Coventry.

A price has not been listed for the electric classic, but first deliveries are set to begin in the summer of 2020. The technical details have also not been revealed, but the developers have admitted they aim for a range of 270 km.

Only the concept shows what kind of vehicle we can expect – it was powered by a 40 kWh lithium-ion battery and has the same dimensions as the traditional motor of the E-Type, which is also where the battery was mounted. The vehicle will not feature fast-charging capability and charging it can take up to 7 hours. The powertrain was specifically developed for this vehicle and uses several components from the I-Pace.

Jaguar has underlined that the dimensions of the vehicle have not changed, due to the similar size of battery and powertrain to the original components, and that the other components had not changed, meaning that the driving experience should be quite close to the original.

Customers and E-Type owners can begin reserving the vehicle now, and it was also announced that the switch to an electric motor was a reversible step, in case anybody did not like the changes.

Update 27.11.2018: After a long period of silence surrounding the project, there is now obviously bad news for interested parties. Jaguar Classic has apparently put plans to produce a fully electric version of the E-Type on hold. Media reports have now been published that refer to a letter addressed to interested parties, informing them that Jaguar Classic had “made the difficult decision” to “suspend development of the production car for the time being”.

jaguar.com, electrek.co, motor1.com, autocar.co.uk, electrek.co (update)