Jaguar today announced its return to global motorsport with the British luxury manufacturer poised to enter the third season of the all-electric FIA Formula E Championship as a manufacturer with its own team.

Jaguar Land Rover will use the FIA Formula E championship to further the development of future EV powertrain including motor and battery technology.

Jaguar follows in the footsteps of Renault and Citroen who have taken key rolls with the DAMS and Virgin teams in FIA Formula this season.

“Electric vehicles will absolutely play a role in Jaguar Land Rover’s future product portfolio and Formula E will give us a unique opportunity to further our development of electrification technologies,” said Nick Rogers, Group Engineering Director for Jaguar Land Rover (pictured right).

“The Championship will enable us to engineer and test our advanced technologies under extreme performance conditions. It is my belief that over the next five years we will see more changes in the automotive world than in the last three decades.

“The future is about being more connected and more sustainable; electrification and lightweight technologies are becoming more important than ever as urbanisation continues to increase. Formula E has recognised and reacted to these trends and the championship’s exciting and pioneering approach is the perfect fit for our brand. ”

Jaguar Land Rover employs more than 8,000 engineers and is the UK’s largest investor in research and development across any business sector. Jaguar’s Formula E team will be able to draw upon this industry leading resource with Jaguar Land Rover engineers working closely with the race operations team.

Williams Advanced Engineering – the engineering arm of the William Formula 1 team – will be the Technical Partner for the Jaguar Formula E Team.  Jaguar Land Rover has a long term relationship with Williams, who partnered with Jaguar on the development of the Jaguar C-X75 plug-in hybrid concept car. The team entry has been granted by Formula E and approved by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

“We are delighted to welcome Jaguar into Formula E. Jaguar is a brand with a rich sporting heritage and the fact that it is returning to global motorsport with Formula E is a huge endorsement of the championship and its ability to influence the development of electric cars,” said Alejandro Agag, Chief Executive Officer for Formula E.

“Jaguar brings with it a passionate fan base that will drive the popularity of the championship across the world and once again shows that Formula E is the future of motorsport.”