A "senior insider" told the British magazine Autocar that Jaguar Land Rover envisages some of the world's most important cities gradually introducing zero-emissions and zero-pollution zones and, as a result, has created an all-electric version of the new Jaguar XJ.

As these insiders see it, all vehicles unable to run purely on batteries would be banned from the designated zones. Hence, Jaguar's decision to produce an electric XJ - a test vehicle for the automaker, mind you, not something that'll be rolling off a production line anytime soon.

According to the insiders, only a self-charging electric car could have sufficient zero-emissions range to be a practical mode of transportation for everyday life. That sentiment would suggest that they see an onboard fuel cell as a necessary component of future EVs.

For now, it's thought that the electric XJ test model will be powered by a 145-kilowatt hour, 295-pound-feet-of-torque electric motor fueled by a lithium-ion battery pack - and that the pack will soon be topped up by an on-board 1.2-litre three-cylinder gasoline-engine generator designed by Lotus specifically for self-charging electric vehicles.