Jaguar has set an electric water speed record

Jaguar is serious about electricity. It’s beaten all the premium German brands to market with an all-electric car, the I-Pace, and beaten most of them into acquiring that other must-have for car firms eager to highlight their environmental commitments, a Formula E team.

Now it can chalk up another success. It’s just captured the electric water speed record. In partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering, the Jaguar Vector crew has taken the electric record to 88.61mph.

Based around a Formula 1 inshore powerboat, Jaguar Vector stripped it back and inserted 320kg of batteries in the frame and a pair of Yasa electric motors into the rear housing. With learning and technology taken direct from the Formula E project, the V20E boat develops 295bhp.

The record, set at Coniston Water in the Lake District, involved two runs made in opposite directions within 20 minutes, through a timed kilometer section.

“This is just the start”, said Jaguar Vector technical director and driver, Peter Dredge. ”The plan is to take the record further, and beyond that to understand the potential of electricity in high speed craft and try to get the lead in that.” 

What next? An amphibious F-Pace? An F-Type drag boat? Ooh, an I-Pace submarine. These are all sounding like ideas Top Gear can get behind.