Jaguar Unveils Its First Virtual All-Electric Sports Car

Jaguar has unveiled its first all-electric virtual sports car – the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo Coupé. The  EV is set to join the grid as the latest addition to the Vision Gran Turismo line-up for the Gran Turismo series.

The all-electric Jaguar Vision GT Coupé has been designed and developed from the ground up taking inspiration from the brand’s incredible racing lineage. The iconic C-type and D-type influence its fearless futuristic design, while Jaguar’s I-TYPE 4 Formula E and I-PACE eTROPHY racing cars provide the technical foundations for its uncompromising racing performance.

Jaguar’s team of designers were given complete creative freedom to develop the perfect proportions and beautiful surfaces of this virtual Jaguar of the future.

Julian Thomson, Jaguar Design Director, said: “This project has been completely led by our young designers and represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them to create a vehicle steeped in our incredible heritage but pushing the boundaries of future design. The team have done an incredible job in creating something which is clearly identifiable as a Jaguar, inspired – but not constrained – by our iconic past.”

Providing gamers with 750 kW of power, 1 200 Nm of torque, a 0-100 km/h time of less than 2 s and perfectly balanced handling, the Jaguar Vision GT Coupé will be on the starting grid for GT Sport fans from the end of November.

Kazunori Yamauchi, Gran Turismo creator, President of Polyphony Digital Inc., said: “We are delighted to today announce the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo project. It was a great experience for us to work with Julian Thomson who is the new design director now at Jaguar. The design and performance of this car is a result of the team's skill, craftsmanship, and long years of collaborations together. We look forward to having drivers get behind the wheel next month.”

The virtual sports EV is crafted from experimental lightweight materials, with the light and stiff monocoque made from carbon-fiber composites and aluminum alloys. This focused lightweight construction ensures the Jaguar Vision GT Coupé weighs just 1 400 kg and delivers near 50:50 weight distribution.

The Vision GT Coupé is the first Jaguar to feature the Leaper on the front grille. Elsewhere the historic references continue with the twin-charging sockets flanking the rear haunches, inspired by Jaguar’s 1968 XJ saloon.

The interior of the Jaguar Vision GT Coupé has been designed to fuse Jaguar’s heritage with its contemporary interior philosophy of progressive luxury, purity, driver focus, and intricate details, all of which are allowed to breathe through the simplicity of the car’s design.

Chris Shaw, Interior Designer, Jaguar Advanced Design, said: “We’ve really pushed the limit to imagine how a future Jaguar sports car interior could look. The architecture is visually lightweight, simple, and dramatic; featuring advanced and experimental materials and finishes. Sitting in the stunningly considered cockpit and looking out onto the gracefully long bonnet of the Jaguar Vision GT Coupé – a view that is unmistakably Jaguar – the player will be fully immersed in the action.”

The car is powered by three powerful, compact motors – one driving both front wheels, the other two driving a rear-wheel each – which together produce a combined 750 kW and 1 200 Nm. Players will be propelled from 0-100 km/h in less than 2 s and on to a maximum speed of more than 321 km/h. 

James Barclay, Team Director, Panasonic Jaguar Racing said: “The opportunity to take what we have learned on the track from our time in Formula E and apply it to a futuristic Jaguar race car has been a great challenge for the Jaguar Racing engineers. With its all-electric motor design drawing on the technology from both the Jaguar I-TYPE 4 and eTROPHY race cars, we have accurately modeled the performance of the Jaguar Vision GT Coupé in the virtual world, creating a car that will be exhilarating to drive and a real threat to the competition.”  

The Jaguar Vision GT will be available for players to download in Gran Turismo Sport for the Sony PlayStation 4 from the end of November and will first be driven by competitors in the latest round of Sony’s Gran Turismo World Tour event at the Tokyo Motor Show, Japan, from 26-27 October.