Jaguar C-X75 may become reality in 5-7 years

The good critics on the launch of the Jaguar C-X75 supercar have opened the possibility of a future production of a model based on the Paris Motor Show concept car. According to sources within the brand, the brand will be studying the feasibility of a production up to 2000 cars per year.

Although Jaguar isn’t talking much about the matter, sources of Autocar have told that there are two levels of production being considered.

As they demand different production methods, they each need to be explored independently. With the lower production number more hand assembly would be used and it would have lower tooling costs. On the higher one there is more automation, but the tooling costs are higher.

In order to see a production that uses gas turbine technology featured in the C-X75, between five-and-seven years have to be waited in order to Jaguar to prove and plan the production of the Bladon Jets micro gas-turbines at the heart of the hybrid-electric powertrain.

“We’re talking two-to-three years for implementation of the gas turbine technology, then another three-to-four years to integrate into a vehicle,” says Jag’s head of advanced powertrain Tony Harper.

The lower development costs of the gas turbines for production, might favour the C-X75 when compared to the ones of an equivalent internal combustion engine.

Harper believes that the gas turbines can be engineered and fulfill the rigorous car industry reliability and endurance standards: “There’s much less to go wrong; there’s about 100 times fewer parts in a gas turbine than an IC engine.”

Replicating a production supercar faithful to the C-X75 design is largely dependent on these gas turbines. In fact, thanks to the little space they occupy in the engine bay, Jaguar was able to position the cabin 300mm further back than typical in a conventionally-powered supercar.