Jaguar’s C-X75 electric hypercar first appeared at the Paris Motor Show in 2010, where it was instantly declared a winner due to its sleek style and the high level of technology squeezed inside.
However, as it was a concept car, there was no guarantee it would ever make it into showrooms. Jaguar has never been one to give up easily though, and the C-X75 has been progressing nicely ever since.
In a chat with Evo Magazine, Jaguar has now revealed the C-X75 will be going on sale in a couple of years time, but there are two very important reasons why only a select few will be driving away in one.
Before we get into that, Jaguar’s engineers were also kind enough to share a few more details on the car and the technology it will contain.
Supercharged, turbocharged and twin electric motors.
The Jaguar C-X75 will be driven by a 1.6 liter, twin-cam 16-valve, all-aluminum engine sitting behind the driver, equipped with direct and port-fed fuel injection, and both a belt-driven supercharger and a turbocharger to ensure a smooth delivery of power.
Like other twin-charged engines, the forced induction parts are staged, so the supercharger will do the business below 5,000rpm, then hand over to the now on-boost turbocharger, which will continue to build the revs to the 10,000rpm redline. Yep, 10,000rpm.
The concept C-X75 caused a stir due to using a pair of jet turbine generators and four electric motors. Sadly, but logically, this has changed, and the production version of the car will have two axial flux electric motors, one for the front and the other for the rear wheels. Jaguar plans to install two, liquid-cooled, 600 volt battery packs either side of the engine, which will return an electric-only range of 37 miles.
The gearbox setup is interesting too, as the Jag will have a single-speed ‘box mated to the front electric motor, and a seven-speed gearbox at the rear for the second electric motor and the conventional power plant too.
All this adds up to a minimum of 500 horsepower, a 0-60 time of 3 seconds, a 0-100 time of 6 seconds and a 205 miles-per-hour top speed. It’s expected to have a CO2 emission figure of just 99g/km too. Top put that in perspective, a Honda Insight manages 111g/km.
F1 technology inside
Jaguar has worked with the Williams F1 team on the C-X75, and plenty of F1 technology will be used too. The 1.6 liter turbocharged engine and its insane 10,000rpm redline is similar to the motors that will power F1 cars from 2014 onwards, plus the C-X75 will make use of a kinetic energy recovery system, or KERS, too.
The car’s all-carbon fiber construction, active underbody aerodynamics and control of the spent exhaust gases to generate downforce (known as an “exhaust-blown diffuser” in F1) are also fruit of the Williams partnership. Oh, and as you can hear in the video below, it sounds a bit like an F1 car too.
So. You want one. But unfortunately, you’re probably not going to get one. The Jaguar C-X75 will cost about £800,000, which converts to just over $1.2 million at today’s prices, and Jag will only be making 200 of them.
Even at that price, the car will most likely sell out, after all, the Aston Martin One-77 did, and that cost even more. Jaguar has been sensible though, and based its production run on the interest it received at the Paris show in 2010.
The Jaguar C-X75 is almost finished, and provided the project gets the final go-ahead, it will go on sale by 2014.
