Jaguar Land Rover’s Project Vector Is An Exciting Flexible Smart City Transport Concept

Project Vector is an electric city vehicle concept by Jaguar Land Rover. It forms part of the marque’s wider “Destination Zero” plan – a long-term collaborative project with other transport providers and academics. Together they are working towards finding viable solutions for the autonomous, electric, connected urban transport of the future, conceived through a range of progressive products and services.

The Project Vector vehicle has an electric drivetrain and previews autonomous-ready technology. The compact car measures just 4m in length, the battery and drivetrain components are neatly packaged within the flat floor to allow for a variety of transport uses in city environments. The modular cabin space provides flexibility for seating configurations so Project Vector can be used for private or shared use, as well as have the opportunity for commercial applications, including last mile deliveries.

JLR plans to integrate the platform into future smart city infrastructures, delivering services for private and shared mobility needs. “Project Vector shows JLR as a leader in innovation to make our societies safer and healthier and the environment cleaner,” says chief executive officer Ralf Speth. He admits that it is vital for the company to collaborate with “the brightest minds in academia, supply chain and digital services”, to help create connected, integrated mobility systems, what he calls “the fundamental building blocks for Destination Zero.”

This means working collaboratively alongside a dedicated team based at the National Automotive Innovation Center at the University of Warwick in the UK as well as academics and external partners. Together they hope to 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. Project Vector, Speth says, is “precisely the brave and innovative leap forward needed to deliver on our mission”.

“The megatrends of urbanization and digitalization make connected urban mobility systems necessary and inevitable,” explains the project director Tim Leverton. “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.”

Leverton feels that with the help of JLR’s technology and engineering knowhow, the team are in a unique place to develop progressive urban mobility services, seamlessly integrated into everyday life. “Future urban travel will be a composite of owned and shared vehicles,” he explains, “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.”

JLR chief engineer Gero Kempf says the project provides a unique opportunity for his team “a 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.”

In its first stage, Project Vector will be based at the National Automotive Innovation Center, working with Coventry City Council and the West Midlands Combined Authority. The idea is to launch a mobility service pilot test project next year as a living laboratory for future mobility on the streets of Coventry.

Take a look at some other progressive urban transport and city living ideas to include Pix Moving flexi cities, Toyota’s prototype futuristic city and MINI Living Shanghai.