Jaguar Made A Stunning All-Electric Supercar - But There's One Big Problem
Jaguar has a new all-electric sports car, but don't get too excited: piloting the Jaguar Vision GT Coupé is only going to happen in Gran Turismo. The latest supercar concept to be designed specially for the legendary racing game, it combines classic Jaguar racing car style with an all-wheel drive system inspired by the British automaker's modern electric racers.
On the outside, it's definitely sleek. Jaguar says the lines of the C-type and D-type race cars were the primary style guide, a team of young designers from the company let loose to come up with pretty much whatever they wanted.
The resulting car is unmistakably a Jaguar. The oversized front fenders are a nod back to the Jaguar C-type, a racing version of the XK 120 that the automaker sold in the early 1950s. It was followed by the D-type, less than a hundred of which were made, but which had an outsized impact in terms of Le Mans success.
The D-type contributes its proportions, with Jaguar's team envisaging that the Vision GT Coupé would be made from a carbon-fiber composite and aluminum alloy monocoque. Get the mix of materials right, the automaker suggests, and the whole thing could tip the scales at just over 3,000 pounds, hitting near 50:50 front to rear weight distribution in the process.
That's not bad at all, when you consider the Vision GT Coupé has to carry its battery pack, too. The modern racing Jaguar provides the propulsion inspiration, with the automaker's Panasonic Jaguar Racing engineers stepping in with their expertise. Three compact electric motors drive the car, one for the front wheels, and the other two powering a rear wheel each.
Altogether that's enough for 750 kW (1,005 horsepower) and 1,200 Nm of torque (885 lb-ft). With that sort of power on tap, the Vision GT Coupé could do 0-62 mph in under two seconds, Jaguar suggests, while its maximum speed would be in excess of 200 mph. It's unclear just how long the car could keep that up, before its batteries would need to be recharged via the twin charging ports on the rear flanks.
Inside, meanwhile, the E-type gets a nod with its crisp, minimalist cabin. An onboard AI – dubbed KITT-E – is envisaged as acting as co-pilot, while a holographic display could show 3D maps, car telemetry, and more. Augmented reality side glass could flag potential hazards from the sides, virtually expanding the driver's field of view, while a transparent information cluster ahead of the steering wheel drops the key speed, power, and other data right atop the race track.
For the sound, Jaguar's I-PACE audio team whipped up a custom soundscape for the Vision GT Coupé. That's based on recordings of the '603' Long Nose D-type, which won Le Mans in 1957, noises from the 3.8-liter XK engine of which have been blended electronically into a more futuristic tone.
Jaguar says that the Vision GT Coupé will join the Gran Turismo line-up on PlayStation 4 from the end of November. Sadly, despite the appetite for all-electric sports cars right now, there's no sign of a production version following on, but we can keep hoping.