In the pursuit of changing the image of Jaguar cars as ‘the old man’s car’, Jaguar have set about developing several new ventures and partnerships to promote Jaguar as a leading edge innovator in vehicle technology in general, and electric vehicles in particular.
First, in 2016 Jaguar returned to vehicle racing, setting up Jaguar Racing to become one of the first mainstream manufacturer entrants into the all-electric, street racing EV series. (The ABB FIA Formula E Championship).
In the current Formula E series, which completes with the July 14 and 15 street races in New York, Jaguar are currently running 5thin a fleet of 10 teams.
Next (in 2017) came the partnering of Jaguar Racing, Williams Advanced Engineering and the British company Vectorto become Jaguar Vector Racing with the intention to break a number of speed records using electric vehicle technology.
The partnering of Jaguar’s Formula E technology and Vector has now paid off – with the setting of a new world water speed record for an electric boat. On June 15th, Jaguar Vector Racing’s V20E boat set a record of just over 142km/hr (88.61mph) on Coniston Water in England.
(On an historical note: Coniston Water is where father and son Sir Malcom and later Donald Campbell set their water speed records, and is where Donald Campbell died in Bluebirdin 1967).
The team is also planning to further raise this speed record in coming months.
