Autocar March 13, 2019

MORGAN IS THE latest, and now the last, of our famous old car makers to enter foreign hands (p25). Frankly, ownership doesn’t really matter, so long as it’s the right company in charge, and they’re in it for the right reasons. Bentley, Rolls-Royce (German owners) and McLaren (Bahraini) have thrived, and Jaguar Land Rover (Indian) had until recently enjoyed a decade of growth. Vauxhall (French) and Lotus (Chinese) are also showing positive signs under new owners. Morgan’s new Italian owner, Investindustrial, will back the company – just look at what it has done at Aston Martin – so the times should be good at Malvern over the next few years. But long term? As an investment company, Investindustrial exists to buy and then sell companies, as it has done with its Aston…

“The J-Pace’s electric rear axle should give a significant improvement in handling” Jaguar’s upcoming J-Pace flagship SUV will be one of the first electrified models built on an all-new Jaguar Land Rover platform – and a fully electric version is also likely to be made, according to sources. The J-Pace is thought to be just over two years from launch and will arrive at around the same time as the fifth-generation Range Rover, which will also be built on the firm’s MLA platform. The J-Pace is one of three new ‘mid-height’ Jaguar Land Rover models that will be based around electrified powertrains. The MLA platform, which will underpin all JLR vehicles by 2025, will be all-aluminium and is expected to be noticeably lighter than the current D7 and D8 architectures. One of the technical…

The Jaguar I-Pace has narrowly won the European Car of the Year Award, the first time the British car maker has taken victory in the trophy’s 55-year history. The electric SUV finished level on points with the Alpine A110 after votes from the 60 journalist jurors were counted. The I-Pace was given the prize after a tie-break based on how many judges had given each car a first-place vote. It was the first time two cars had been tied after the final vote. Jaguar design boss Ian Callum said the I-Pace was “the most exciting car I’ve worked on” during his 40-year career. The Kia Ceed finished third, ahead of the new Ford Focus. The other finalists were the Citroën C5 Aircross, Mercedes-Benz A-Class and Peugeot 508. The Car of the Year Award was…

JLR’s running annual results in February were hardly great news (the company lost £273m in the quarter before tax, compared with a profit of £192m over the same period a year earlier), but it was the wider accounting moves that were a real shock. The £3.1bn writedown rocked the industry. Reportedly, half of this sum was the company recognising that the value of its plant and investments were lower than expected. The other half was the recognition that its future earnings are likely to suffer a permanent set-back. It’s a complex area, but much of the financial shortfall is expected in China, and it’s not simply because Jaguar and Land Rover sales there collapsed by around 35% last year, with 22% of that accounted for by Land Rover. JLR admitted in its own…

MORGAN IS THE latest, and now the last, of our famous old car makers to enter foreign hands (p25). Frankly, ownership doesn’t really matter, so long as it’s the right company in charge, and they’re in it for the right reasons. Bentley, Rolls-Royce (German owners) and McLaren (Bahraini) have thrived, and Jaguar Land Rover (Indian) had until recently enjoyed a decade of growth. Vauxhall (French) and Lotus (Chinese) are also showing positive signs under new owners. Morgan’s new Italian owner, Investindustrial, will back the company – just look at what it has done at Aston Martin – so the times should be good at Malvern over the next few years. But long term? As an investment company, Investindustrial exists to buy and then sell companies, as it has done with…

JAGUAR IS ON the cusp of deciding whether the next F-Type will be a full-blooded petrol-engined car or a dramatic, futuristic first take on a battery-electric vehicle designed to act as a ‘halo’ for future mobility. Speaking to Autocar, Jaguar design director Ian Callum said: “We’re asking ourselves if it should be a final hurrah for the old-school sports car that we know and love, or to switch now to make our first all-electric sports car,” said Callum. “It’s a very difficult decision. What I will say is that the electric decision is looking more interesting with time.” Although the F-Type is expected to be on sale for at least three more years, Callum confirmed that the development cycle for its successor would have to begin soon, suggesting a new car is…