Jaguar C-X75: Jaguar’s Hypercar stillborn

The Jaguar C-X75 hybrid hypercar will not go in to production. Jaguar cite the poor economic outlook is behind the decision to scrap the C-X75.

But the gas turbines soon bit the dust as Jaguar realised the technology was just not mature enough for a production car, so they replaced the gas turbines with a 1.6 litre turbocharged and supercharged petrol engine charging the batteries that powered the two electric motors, one on each axle.

Since then, Jaguar has fed us bits and pieces of information on the progress of the C-X75, the last being the news in September that the C-X75 was about to start proper testing with the new hybrid setup with five C-X75s being built to test the real world abilities of the new hypercar.

But all that is now being put on the shelf of ‘Jaguar could have beens’ with the C-X75 project canned in the face of the global economic meltdown. And, it must be said, Jaguar’s fears, no doubt, that the C-X75 could have dented Jaguar’s renewed reputation unless it was not just spectacular, but as good as the offerings from Ferrari (the new Enzo) and McLaren (the McLaren P1).

Jaguar’s supercar history has not been an easy one, with the XJ220 changing somewhat from concept to production (and going up in price) leading to much rumbling in the courts. But the XJ220 was still a spectacular car, it just came at the wrong time – in the teeth of a world recession (sound familiar?).

Autocar are reporting that Jaguar will probably auction off three of the prototypes, keep one for demonstrations and put the other in a Jaguar Museum (if the Jaguar Museum makes a return).

All of which is a disappointing, but pragmatic, decision from Jaguar. Still, Jaguar will get the kudos of building a hypercar without any of the grief of actually selling it to real punters, and can instead get on with the job of extending the Jaguar range and, hopefully, utilising some of the lessons learnt with the C-X75 in future production cars.

By Cars UK