Jaguar News: Jaguar Imagines A Future Without A V8 Engine

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

August 22, 2013

Up until very recently, the entire Jaguar lineup in the U.S. were exclusively powered by V8 engines. That has been changing in the past year with the brand introducing V6 and turbo-four engines into their lineup. This trend of downsizing could continue with Jaguar with the brand possibly giving up the V8 engine due to emission regulations.

"We are not wedded to V8s. Can Jaguar exist without a V8? The answer is yes, but is it our intention at this stage to eliminate the V8 from our engine pallete? Clearly not because we need it for our performance," said Jaguar's product and marketing director, Steven de Ploey.

de Ploey said that Jaguar is looking at a number of alternatives that reduce emissions while retaining performance. One of those alternatives is to drop supercharging and go with turbocharging due to emissions. For the timebeing, Jaguar will be sticking with supercharging as it is is still "the heart of Jaguar's performance proposition."

But if that time comes where the V8 must be retired, Jaguar might have a few tricks up its sleeve.

"When we have the technology that delivers intelligent performance at the same level will we even consider such as move. Some of the stuff we have already exploited to the extreme in the C-X75 is the kind of thinking for us and is an essential test bed to see how we could evolve from today to something that is sustainable in the future," stated de Ploey.

Source: Drive.com.au

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[riviera74]

Jaguar dispose their V8? WHY? This is worse than Cadillac without V8s (Escalade and V-series aside). I was very concerned that Jaguar would succumb to those inane new regulations that the EU proposed recently. Now it has become obvious that Jaguar is willing to sacrifice part of their identity just to meet those regs. A total shame if they essentially turn Jaguar into a tarted-up, soulless Lincoln.

Edited August 22, 2013 by riviera74

[Drew Dowdell]

Electric motors provide superior torque anyway

[smk4565]

True if everything goes electric, and the supercharged V6 does make 380 hp so it is a pretty strong engine. But Jaguar without V8s will be a sad day. What is scary is when you see companies like Jaguar, BMW and Mercedes moving away from V8s, Audi sort of already did. We are about 5 years away from V8s only being in AMG or M cars, and optional in the S-class and 7-series. Cars under $75,000 with a V8 could be really rare come 2020.

[balthazar]

Jag survived being without their V12, they can survive no V8. So few buy Jaguars of any cylinder count, the needle will hardly blip.

[G. David Felt]

Jag is a label much like Coach purses. people who buy them are mostly unaware of the engine and cylinder count as Balthazar says. From a history point and for those of use that are auto nuts, we will miss the V8. yet most cars today can get by without them. I truly hope the hybrids with a proper generator can truly produce the performance. As Drew stated, Electric does have superior Torque.

So who is up for starting a company that makes Performance Electric Motors? Think of this as a 3rd party upgrade for those that buy a Volt, Prius, etc and want more performance.

[Robert Hall]

Historically, Jaguar's engines were straight 6s...the V12s were low volume and the V8 is a relatively recent development. Alas, they don't have straight 6s anymore, so they've already lost their iconic engine and seem to be doing ok.

[riviera74]

Now if Jaguar went all-electric, that would be an interesting development. The better question is whether ANY carmaker can make a car with an electric motor (as opposed to Tesla with just a battery) that just works and is affordable.