AMG, Polestar, and soon, SVO.
As most of us are still catching our breath after yesterday’s release of the Jaguar XE SV Project 8, it seems that the Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) of Jaguar are already plotting their next move, aiming to keep up with other performance offshoots by building its own high-performance sports car.
While SVO has enjoyed great success fettling cars like the F-Type and XE and turning them into performance monsters, it seems that they will also be taking aim at performance halo cars like the Mercedes-AMG GT to showcase its breadth of ability as more than just a tuning arm. This is broadly similar to what other brands (like Volvo’s Polestar, for example) are aiming to do, with the intent confirmed to AutoExpress by SVO boss John Edwards.
“Deep down, we want to make our own model. Just look at the success of the [Mercedes] AMG GT.” – John Edwards, Managing Director, Special Vehicle Operations
The ‘Project’ cars we’ve seen prior to this are crucial to the divisions’ development, Edwards underlined, suggesting that there will be more SVO-badged cars in the future (though which ones, we do not know). That said, there’s great speculation about SVO looking at the Jaguar F-Pace and the Range Rover Velar, two cars that the brand boss described as having “great potential.”
With the XE SV Project 8 going from sketch to reality in just 12-months, the potential that SVO has up its sleeves is immense. Should it go with the route of a unique sports car, we reckon that it’ll likely sit on an existing Jaguar platform and benefit from the drivetrains suited to it. Edwards remarked that the freedom they enjoyed while working on Project 7 and Project 8, and that they’re excited to be looking ahead for new members of the SVO family.
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