Jaguar’s plans for entering the electric vehicle field in a big way seem to be moving forward nicely, with the British company officially launching its Formula E race team only just a few days ago (on September 8th), according to recent reports.
Also of great note in that regard is that what appeared to be a camo-painted electric F-Pace was recently spotted being tested in the Alps — leading to some speculation that the model was the oft-rumored electric SUV that the company is reportedly working on.
On the subject of the firm’s new Formula E race team, the official launch event revealed that the Jaguar vehicle has been dubbed “the I-Type 1.” The vehicle will enter use when the third season of the Formula E racing kicks off on October 9th.
“The Formula E championship will enable us to engineer and test our advanced technologies under extreme performance conditions,” commented Nick Rogers, executive director of product engineering at Jaguar Land Rover, in a recent statement. “We will apply this vital knowledge as part of our real-world development.”
Autoblog continues: “It marks Jaguar’s return to factory-supported racing and serves as a model for the company’s future strategy… Panasonic signed on as the title sponsor of the team. Formula E is a natural move for Jag and allows the British company to remain true to its racing heritage while still looking toward. The company claims seven Le Mans titles, which is the fourth-most in history, even though it hasn’t won one since 1990. That’s a great lineage, but Jaguar knows it’s getting dusty. Launching a Formula E effort allows it to compete in a form of motorsports that should prove relevant to road-car technology. Jag is drawing on Williams Advanced Engineering (you might have heard of its F1 team) for the electric powertrain. Williams also helped with the development of Jaguar’s C-X75 plug-in concept car.”
With regard to the presumably electric F-Pace spotted in the Alps, the evidence for the vehicle being electric mostly just comes down to witnesses saying that there was no engine noise, so who knows at this point if it’s anything but an assumption.
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