Electric Jaguar on the way. F-Pace, XE or an all-new Jaguar?

Jaguar are planning an electric car in a bid to avoid emissions fines from the EU, and will build it at Magna Steyr in Austria. But which Jaguar will be electrified?

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[View all Jaguar XE photos]

Even if the well to wheel emissions of electric cars are debatable, car makers are rushing to deliver EVs to cut emissions to avoid looming EU fines, with luxury car makers like BMW, with the i3 and i8, and Audi with the R8 e-tron and electric Q6, already making moves. Now it looks like Jaguar Land Rover are about to deliver their first electric car.

According to the Sunday Times this weekend, the first electric Jaguar could arrive as soon as 2016, and Jaguar are planning to use Magna Steyr in Austria – the go-to manufacturers from small-run stuff from mainstream car makers – to build up to 10,000 cars a year.

But what isn’t clear is what exactly Jaguar has in mind.

Will they go the same route as BMW, with completely standalone electric cars like the i3 and i8, or will they opt to take the Audi route by fitting an existing car with an electric motor or two and a big bank of batteries?

It does seem likely the first electric Jaguar will be a an EV version of an existing model, and if that’s the case then the two likely candidates must be an electric Jaguar XE or a new F-Pace EV.

Jaguar are staying tight-lipped on the subject, but with production at Magna Steyr of a Jaguar EV starting as early as 2016, we should learn more soon.