Jaguar CX-75 for Australia

Chief engineer confirms right-hand-drive for hybrid electric supercar
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The million-dollar Jaguar CX-75 petrol-electric supercar will make it to Australia after all -- even though the company wrongly stated at last month's production announcement the vehicle would be built in left-hand-drive only.

"No-one asked me," said Bob Joyce, the head of engineering for Jaguar and Land Rover, who is also personally overseeing the CX-75 project. "There was a mix-up. It was always going to be built in right-hand-drive. Hey, I've got to drive one," he joked.

"Somebody in PR put something on a piece of paper without asking. It somehow went out on a press release [that it would be built in left-hand-drive only] … but we never made that decision. That would be silly."

The confirmation of a right-hand-drive model was also news to Jaguar Australia, who got the update at the same time the media did – during idle chatter over dinner at the launch of the XKR-S in Portugal last week.

"This is a revelation for us, this is as much news to me as it's news to you," said Jaguar Australia brand manager Kevin Goult. "There are people in Australia who want to buy this car. This now opens a whole new gateway."

The other revelation is that the CX-75 could be faster than the iconic XJ220 supercar from the early 1990s. That vehicle sprinted from 0 to 60mph in 3.6 seconds, the CX-75 could trim that to as low as 3.0 seconds neat, or quicker, insiders say.

"This will be the fastest electric car in the world," said Joyce. Current estimates put the Audi and Mercedes electric supercars in the low 3-second bracket, so Jaguar would need to undercut these cars to match its claim.

Jaguar has confirmed the CX-75 will be powered by two electric motors (one for the front wheels and the other for the rear) but is yet to reveal what petrol engine will support the hybrid system.

The latest speculation is that it will be a high output 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine, possibly turbocharged and supercharged, and related to the 1.6-litre F1 engine being developed by Williams for the 2013 F1 season.

Jaguar is already taking orders for the CX-75 but has stopped short of taking financial deposits.

Joyce also confirmed that, despite the stong interest, Jaguar would not exceed the planned build of 250 vehicles. "We will do 250 and there won't be any more," said Joyce.

Such a limited run would make the CX-75 more rare than the XJ220. Jaguar built 281 XJ220s between 1992 and 1994.

He said development on the CX-75 was tracking full speed ahead – but a physical prototype (other than the Paris 2010 showcar) was yet to be built.

Jaguar has done more computer modeling work developing the CX-75 than it has done for any other production car. "I've probably done 500 per cent more in cyberspace than I would do on a normal car. All of the electronics modeling, the systems modeling.

"You only build prototypes to develop the mechanical and electrical systems … on this car with this amount of electronics we've got to do an awful lot of simulation."

He said a proper running prototype should be on the road by the end of the year, two years ahead of the car's showroom debut in 2013.

He said the CX-75, developed at a secret location with Jaguar and Williams F1 engineers, will be handbuilt but still have "the discipline of a robust sign-off" of a regular production car. "In F1 their 'job one' is the day of the race, we can't do that because it's going to a paying customer."

Joyce and chief designer at Jaguar, Ian Callum, are overseeing the project, visiting the secret site once a week. And they have already instigated some changes. "It looks a little bit different [to the show car] but still stunning."

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