Jaguar Land Rover CEO, Ralph Speth, has said the company has no plans to offer full electric cars. Just yet. Speth believes current battery technology is outdated and until new lightweight/high density batteries are developed companies like Tesla can have the EV market to themselves.

Speaking at a news conference Speth said “Battery technology today is still too heavy, too expensive and the density is too low. As we learned at school, there’s this correlation between mass and energy and as long as this is not favorable, even if you recuperate, this is an issue.”

Speth’s comments do not signal JLR has completely abandoned EV technology, the company is working on full electric powered vehicle prototypes. Project Evoque E will preview Land Rover’s next generation drivetrain later on on the year.

JLR is looking over its shoulders at the moment, Tesla is preparing to launch its full electric Model X SUV over the next four months. Audi is set to join the full electric powered vehicle ranks by offering its own electric SUV by 2018.

During the conference in Birmingham Speth reiterated “The next generation of batteries will be higher density, lower weight and the cost will come down,”. It isn’t clear when the next generation of battery technology will become available.

Current battery technology used by Tesla are high density Lithium-ion based, these were developed by Sony over 30 years ago and little has changed to improve the energy density further.

Despite holding a higher charge than alkaline-based batteries Lithium-ion based EV’s are still not the answer for JLR. Speth also said “Customers are not impressed with it currently,”.

However, Speth did say that auto manufacturers needed to address consumer concerns by offering lower emission vehicles for a new generation of tech-savvy and environmentally concerned buyers. “They feel the car industry doesn’t understand them any more,” he said.