Jaguar XJ_e PHEV Plug-in Hybrid wins RAC Awards

The Jaguar XJ_e PHEV plug-in hybrid has won the RAC ‘Most Energy Efficient Luxury Car Prototype’ and ‘Technical Panel’s Award of Merit’.

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The RAC’s Future Car Challenge is a challenge for Electric, Hybrid, Low-Emission, Hydrogen and ICE cars to travel from Brighton to Regent Street in London – a total of 63 miles – to demonstrate the performance and frugality of ‘clean-energy’, and the 2012 event was run over the weekend as a companion event to the London to Brighton Rally.

This year, Jaguar rolled out its experimental hybrid XJ – the Jaguar XJ_e, which we saw at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed – which managed to win the award for ‘Most Energy Efficient Luxury Car Prototype’ and also grabbed the Technical Panel’s ‘Award of Merit’ for its clever tech and frugal transit.

Jaguar entered three XJ_e PHEV experimental cars in to the FCC, which managed to do the Brighton to London run on just 1.2 litres of petrol and 11kWh of electricity which adds up to an mpg of around 125mpg. Which is a pretty impressive display from a big, luxury car.

The experimental XJ – part funded by the Government’s Technology Strategy Board, just like the Lotus 414E REEV – has a 2.0 litre petrol engine coupled to a 69kW electric motor and 12.3kWh lithium-ion battery which can manage a 25 mile plug-in range (when it can hit 75mph just on the electric motor).

All the technology adds up to the equivalent of 87mpg from the big Jag (which means CO2 emissions of 75g/km) , quite an improvement on even the regular 3.0 litre diesel XJ’s 40mpg and 160g/km (and much higher NOx and particulate emissions).

Pete Richings, Director of Hybrids & Electrification at JLR, said:

The three experimental XJ_e vehicles were brand new so this event was their first drive in real-world conditions. They performed faultlessly and delivered performance that exceeded our expectations, a tribute to our engineering team who prepared them. Events like this help us not only to understand the technical challenges involved but also provide an opportunity to showcase promising solutions.

Clever though the tech is in the XJ_e, it feels like a less elegant solution than the XJ Limo Green, which was a range-extender using the Lotus 414E’s 1.2 litre engine to charge the batteries.

Still, well done on the awards, Jaguar XJ_e.