The Royal wedding vehicle that Prince Harry and Meghan vacated Windsor Castle in is Jaguar Classic’s all-electric E-type! Initially announced in 2017 in a Tech Fest event in London, boasted a guarantee that all Jaguar’s manufacturing vehicles will be electrical by 2020.
Earlier in the afternoon, Meghan arrived at Windsor Castle in the Queen’s 1950 Phantom IV, which was originally created for Queen Elizabeth II when she was a princess.
The E-type Zero is derived from a 1968 Series 11/2 E-type, restored and transformed to accommodate electrical power at JLR Classic’s 14,000m square foot headquarters at Coventry, just ten kilometres from Browns Lane factory where E-types were originally produced. Prince Harry drove it away from Windsor Castle to make the reception at neighbouring Frogmore House, hosted by Prince Charles himself.
By putting the lithium-ion battery in the famed six-cylinder XK engine’s place, as well as the 220kW electrical motor and reduction equipment at its rear (instead of this four-speed gearbox), the E-type Zero almost maintains the exact weight distribution ratio as the original. A brand new prop-shaft joins the electrical powertrain into the first differential and final drive.
Its performance improves upon the 246bhp version by featuring a 0-60mph period of 5.5 seconds, a second quicker. Although they have the very same aerodynamics, top speed could be the same were it not for JLR restricting it to 100mph. However, it reaches the top speed in 10 seconds, a full six seconds quicker than the first’s 0-100 time.
What is important to take into consideration is that by slotting the battery and brand new powertrain to the spaces formerly occupied by the engine and gearbox, the Zero might be transformed back to its original specifications without any structural alteration or damage.
Obviously, the Zero will not possess that tell-tale quality of the throaty roar of its predecessors, and its speed range is restricted to a suggested ‘real-world’ 170 miles based on JLR’s statements, but it is an intriguing project none the less.
Jaguar had said that the choice on whether the Zero will enter low-volume generation depends entirely on client attention. We guess that customer attention has only improved since then! Perhaps Jaguar knew during its inception that the future e-type would be electric, hence calling it the e-type.
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