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The Cat is back… Again. The last time that slogan was dusted off by Jaguar’s PR machine was to herald its 2000 Formula One entry.
That team’s most notable achievement was to fill Eddie Irvine’s coffers, should he require another yacht slightly more ostentatious than P Diddy’s lint roller.
Understandably, the Jaguar Land Rover Group have been slightly gunshy in returning to top-line motor sport, but are in a much stronger position since their then-owner Ford sold off the F1 team to Red Bull, yielding four constructor’s world titles.
Since Indian motor group TATA acquired JLR in 2008, the company has been extremely adept in its integration processes, respecting and supporting Jaguar’s existing culture without imposing a state of hegemony within the group. There have been hints of a return to motorsport, with an attempt at returning to Le Mans (the scene of some of their greatest success) in 2010 with their XKR GT2 project, but TATA understandably required a more viable enterprise to nail its flag to.
With manufacturers treating F1 like an armadillo in Florida, there was scant chance of Jaguar making a return to Bernie Ecclestone’s flying circus, and while WEC represented a more representative platform for automotive technology, the hundreds of millions still required to take on Audi and Porsche in their own backyard would be just as foolhardy.
After the surprise success of Formula E debut season, French manufacturers DS Automobiles and Renault have seen fit to field full factory-supported entries in the interests of accelerating their expertise in the field of hybrid technology, which directly transposes into their production vehicles and marketability. It’s of no coincidence that VW hastily slapped their spherical insignia onto their Audi Sport ABT Formula E entries on the back of the VW Group emissions scandal.
TATA have been watching closely and obviously feel the timing is right. In fact, they couldn’t have orchestrated a better launch into Formula E just days after the culmination of the Paris Climate Agreement. Manufacturers who have been frittering on the sidelines will now be coerced into shouldering a responsibility to improve cleaner technology and Jaguar – with sports car projects like the C-X75 – are already at the pointy-end of innovation.
“Over the next five years we will see more changes in the automotive world than in the last three decades,” said JLR’s engineering director Nick Rogers at Jaguar’s Formula E launch.
“The future is about being more connected and more sustainable… Formula E has recognised and reacted to these trends and the championship’s exciting and pioneering approach is the perfect fit for our brand.”
The added bonus for Jaguar is the relatively low-cost for high-return investment associated with Formula E. A 10 million euro expenditure used to buy an F1 engine during the V8 era should be enough to propel Jaguar to the front of the Formula E grid, and with U.S. TV audiences now turned onto into the in vogue electric series, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the marketing potential.
With numbers of Jaguar fans rivalling those of Ferrari back at the Melbourne Grand Prix 15 years ago, don’t be surprised to see a sea of electric green at urban tracks during the latter half of 2016.
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