British car maker Jaguar Land Rover has unveiled a new concept vehicle, Project Vector, as part of the company’s Destination Zero journey, offering its vision of an autonomous, electric, connected future for urban mobility. The vision includes integration into future smart city infrastructures. An on-road pilot programme will commence in 2021 in the English Midlands city of Coventry.

Jaguar Land Rover’s Destination Zero mission is a programme to achieve a car environment with zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion.

As part of that mission, the Project Vector concept showcases an advanced, flexible, multi-use electric vehicle that is ‘autonomy-ready’.

The vehicle concept measures four metres in length and is designed for the city, packaging all its battery and drive-train components into a flat floor, to allow a variety of uses. The interior cabin space allows seating configurations for private, or shared use and the opportunity for commercial applications, such as last mile deliveries.

At the concept vehicle launch, Jaguar Land Rover Chief Executive Officer, Prof Sir Ralf Speth, said: “Jaguar Land Rover understands the trends shaping modern societies. Project Vector shows Jaguar Land Rover as a leader in innovation to make our societies safer and healthier, and the environment cleaner. Through this project, we are collaborating with the brightest minds in academia, supply chain and digital services, to create connected, integrated mobility systems – the fundamental building blocks for Destination Zero.”

Project Vector concept has been created with the mission to raise the quality of future urban living.

It has been developed at the UK National Automotive Innovation Centre to gain the advantages of working with agility and close collaboration with academic and external partners.

It will also address the wider landscape of mobility, from how customers connect with mobility services, to the infrastructure required to enable fully integrated, autonomous vehicles in our cities.

Dr. Tim Leverton, Project Director said: “The mega-trends of urbanisation and digitalisation make connected urban mobility systems necessary and inevitable. Shared and private vehicles will share spaces with and be connected to public transit networks, so you can travel on demand and autonomously. That is a complex task, best achieved by working together with partners across the spectrum of vehicles, infrastructure and the digital world.

“With the technology and engineering power of Jaguar Land Rover, we can provide a unique opportunity for innovators to develop highly-functional urban mobility services, seamlessly integrated into everyday life.

“Future urban travel will be a composite of owned and shared vehicles, access to ride hailing and on-demand services as well as public transport. Our vision shows the vehicle as a flexible part of the urban mobility network that can be adapted for different purposes.”

The intention is to collaborate with Coventry City Council and the West Midlands Combined Authority to plan a mobility service from late 2021, as a living laboratory for future mobility on the streets of Coventry.

Professor Dr Gero Kempf, Chief Engineer said: “It’s also a unique opportunity – a concept platform designed and engineered around urban centric use cases by a major car maker as a blank canvas, for developing tailored services and apps in the ecosystem of a smart city.”