捷豹路虎发布首款纯电揽胜，起售价超20万美元

Jaguar Land Rover unveils its first fully electric Range Rover, with a price tag starting at more than 200,000 U.S. dollars, making it one of the most expensive EVs on the market. The launch comes as higher fuel prices have helped drive demand for electric vehicles. I am pleased to say Nigel Blenkinsop, chief operating officer of Jaguar Land Rover, joins us now. Congratulations, Nigel. I think the quintessential image of the Land Rover is, you know, the Queen driving around the Highlands in Scotland, right in her defender.

What made you want to make an electric Land Rover? Well, the the introduction of the battery electric, uh, Range Rover is the final piece of our portfolio for Range Rover and represents the key element in the flexible propulsion strategy and enables us to sell Range Rover pretty much in every market globally. Uh, and we're really excited about the capability of the vehicle, the quality of the vehicle. And I think it's going to be a great success, um, around the world, but particularly in the, in the United States, where a Were customers asking for it.

Because it does seem like a Land Rover. You know, it's all terrain. It's hardy, hefty climates and so on. We're customers looking for an electric version. Well, first and foremost rate Range Rover is, um, is our luxury brand. Um, and I think we represent that luxury brief, uh, attributes in design. Um, the beautiful design of our vehicle. Um, we're really, really pleased with the capability of the propulsion system as an electric propulsion system.

We actually think it adds to the capability and actually takes the Range Rover to the absolute pinnacle in terms of luxury and refinement. How did you come to the price tag? It's $208,000, is $420, and more than 65,000 more than the regular internal combustion engine version. How did you get to that price tag? Well, that's the price of the launch vehicle, the special edition that we're putting into production right now.

We recognize, Um, that price point in the market, working with our colleagues in the United States, we think that it's competitively priced, and we think it position's Range Rover and the luxury of Range Rover effectively in the in the US market. How many units do you expect to sell in the first year? Nigel. Um, but we're starting production now at a steady rate of climb. We need to make sure that we protect, um, our quality, and we deliver to the highest possible standards.

Over the next 5 to 6 months, we expect to build somewhere between 12 and 15,000 of these units, and they will be distributed globally. Um, and a significant proportion of those will go into the to the US market. The Trump administration hasn't been very EV friendly. Mostly the Detroit automakers have pulled back from EVs. How will you go about marketing this to us? Plans, as you say, are your primary plans for this? Well, I think the the beauty of our portfolio and the fact that we have a flexible propulsion system around Range Rover gives us the ability to sell at a regional level, um, to customers that are particularly interested in EV, but also in the US at a subregional level, we know that certain markets and subregional markets in the US are particularly interested in the EV, and we're really excited.

Um, I could see a huge level of interest. We have over 80,000 expressions of interest for the new electric vehicle, and many of those have come from new customers to the Range Rover brand and actually new customers to Jaguar Land Rover. Now it's made in the same production line in the West Midlands as your other vehicles. Curious if you're concerned that the Trump administration will want you to start making or producing in the United States in order to avoid things like tariffs?

Well, the introduction of tariffs last year was, uh, a challenging moment for the business. I think we've adjusted and grown out of that with the stabilization, normalization of the tariffs that were introduced. We've gone away and we've found additional Efficiencies and productivity to offset the the challenge of the tariffs. And what we're trying to do now is to make sure that we position this product to the right point in the market so that it delivers, um, successfully.

And we're also exploring other, um, opportunities, including partnerships that may develop. Um, I wrote the brand defender in the United States, but it's very, very early stages in terms of those discussions. Well, you also don't quite get the range on this that some of your competitors do. So it's 372 miles on a single charge, and in 22 minutes you can go from 10% to 80% charged. But for example, the model from BMW can do just a little bit more than that.

Do you intend to try to narrow that gap? Will it hurt sales? Yeah, I think if I heard you correctly, you were you were mentioning range. We think that the range is, um, competitive. The battery system on the Range Rover is very, very high density. It's a 400, 800 fold, um, charging system. It gives the customer lots of flexibility. The charge rate is really, really quickly. It's really, really quick. Um, and through the development process, we recognize that we can put approximately 200 miles of range into the battery in less than ten minutes, which is is very, very competitive.

Um, gives the customer huge flexibility when they're out on longer journeys. You know, there is a Chinese model that is actually termed the Range Rover, which is a credit to Range Rover. Right? But also, you know, it speaks to the fact that people can now get cheaper versions of this from China. How are you holding back China competition? Well, I think we're, um, we're really, really confident in the strength of our House of brands.

Range Rover is our flagship products. We're very, very confident about the strength of those brands and the potential for growth in that brand and our other brands globally. Uh, we're continuing to focus on what we do well and make sure that we're presenting that in the best possible way to to our customers and our customers. We know we're extremely excited about the new products that are coming into the portfolio, and we're looking forward to delivering, you know, extremely impressive, uh, experience for all of those customers.