Driving into the future

Jaguar's C-X75, which debuted at last year's Paris motor show, is set to enter production. Jaguar, in partnership with Williams F1, let a big cat out of the bag by announcing plans to build just 250 of these supercars, each with a price tag of between £700,000 (BD434,000) and £900,000 (BD557,000).

Although Jaguar's original concept used jet turbines to produce its power, the road-going version will instead use a highly-turbocharged petrol engine with two electric motors - one for the front wheels and one for the rear.

Even though its electric drive and small petrol engine will produce less than 100g/km of CO2, making it the fastest tax-free and London Congestion Charge exempt car in the UK, estimated range in electric-only mode is a mere 48km.

Despite the lack of jet propulsion, the Jaguar C-X75 will still go from 0-100kph in less than three seconds, 0-160kph in under six seconds and reach a top speed of around 321kph.

CEO of Tata Motors, Carl-Peter Forster, said: 'This is the Jaguar of the future. The opportunity for innovation like this is part of the reason Tata Motors invested in Jaguar.'

Williams F1 will bring its engineering expertise for the carbon-fibre chassis, aerodynamics and hybrid power-train.

'Our new association with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) provides us with an exciting opportunity to work with one of the motoring world's most famous and iconic brands,' said Sir Frank Williams, team principle of Williams F1.

'Williams has always considered itself an engineering company and so this project will allow us to combine our technical expertise to create something truly exceptional.'

The move is part of a £5 billion investment plan, announced by JLR in March at the Geneva motor show, to launch 40 'significant new products' over the next five years.

Production of the C-X75 will create more than 100 highly-skilled jobs in the UK. These will be split between Jaguar and Williams.

The model will be built from 2013 until 2015, although it has not yet been decided where production will take place.

Jaguars are currently manufactured at Castle Bromwich, near Birmingham, although JLR's headquarters are in Warwickshire.

The car offers proof that if they are well-engineered, efficient cars with low CO2 emissions can also deliver high performance.

As such, it marks a shift from the past when manufacturers would build high-performance flagship models to show off their capabilities to buyers of frugal, ordinary versions of the same cars.

The logic that anyone who can build a high-performance car should also be able to build good cars with small engines no longer holds, as there is a realisation that it is much more difficult to build a car that combines speed and handling with low fuel consumption.

'There is a clear business case for this exclusive model,' Jaguar brand director Adrian Hallmark said.

The car is central to the Indian-owned luxury car company JLR's plan to establish itself as a technology-inspired carmaker. 'It is a showcase of our capabilities and of the hi-tech engineering skills that exist within Jaguar and Williams F1,' said Mr Forster.'This is a showcase of what can be done in this country if we all pull together.'

The partnership between JLR and Williams F1 is part of the Formula 1 team's plan to extend the number of business areas from which it earns revenue, following hot on the heels of rival McLaren's expansion into, among other things, road car production and GT3 racing.

'In recent years, hybrid technology has been an area of acute development in Formula 1,' said Williams F1 chairman Adam Parr, insisting it is only one example of F1 technology that could prove useful in other industries.

Williams F1, struggling on the race track with their worst start to a season, is in the process of creating subsidiaries that will sell its technology to other motoring companies, or even in other industries such as aerospace.