British giant cancels production of eco-friendly 200 mph car – too costly for age of austerity
CAR collectors will have a chance to buy two of only five Jaguar C-X75 supercars in existence after the model was ditched as being too expensive for commercial production. The futuristic-looking sports car was due to go into production in 2013 at a price of £1m, but Jaguar says the time is not right for a vehicle with that sort of price tag. It will keep three prototypes for research and put the other two up for auction. Those two cars could command a price of way over £1m. The British company claimed the C-X75 would have been one of the fastest low-emission vehicles in the world. First revealed as a concept at the Paris Motor Show in 2010, Jaguar said the £1m car could run for 60 miles on battery power alone – producing no harmful pollution. Adrian Hallmark, Jaguar’s global brand director, told Auto Express “When we first announced the project, during the worst economic downturn this country’s ever seen, we expected things to have improved by now. But considering the economic landscape as it is and the austerity measures, making a £1m supercar seems wrong.” The C-X75 was designed to celebrate Jaguar's 75th anniversary and was able to reach a top speed of 205mph. It could accelerate from 0-62mph in 3.4sec and produced CO2 emissions of just 28g/km. According to Hallmark, the C-X75 would have been “quicker than a Bugatti Veyron, but emitted less CO2 than a Toyota Prius.” The project isn’t wasted because Jaguar have been able to patent more than 100 technologies refined during during the testing of the C-X75. “Many of those [technologies] we’ll continue to develop for our other road cars,” said Hallmark. At the end of the test period next May, Jaguar will keep three cars for its historic fleet according to The Daily Telegraph, and sell the other two. Source: The Week UK
