Jaguar Is Being Reinvented as a High-End, Luxury EV Brand
While Land Rover is being phased out as a brand, Jaguar will soon be reinvented with EVs sporting a modernist design philosophy.
Jaguar and Land Rover are both storied names in automotive history, each producing some of the more iconic vehicles that have graced this earth over their existence. However, the times, they are quickly changing, and it seems like major changes are coming for the entity now known as Jaguar Land Rover, according to MotorTrend. While the storied Land Rover name is being phased out as a brand, soon to be replaced by a trio of brand families – Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery – Jaguar will be reinvented as a high-end, luxury EV brand, now that new CEO Adrian Mardell is running the show.
This is a path that many luxury brands will soon embark on, embracing electrification in a segment where customers seem to be a bit more receptive toward it. Jaguar’s financial struggles have been well documented for years, and its braintrust has determined that big changes are needed to right that proverbial ship, including spinning it off into its own entity – one with vehicles riding on its own singular, dedicated platform, and the same modernist design philosophy that Land Rover has embraced in recent years.
This major shift will begin very soon – in 2025 – when the first new Jaguar EV – a high-performance GT four-door model bows with an expected range of 430 miles and a six-figure price tag, one with performance that will reportedly blow away anything the brand has ever conceived. However, it’s just one component of the $19 billion dollar investment the company is making with the intentions of reinventing itself.
Jaguar Land Rover plans on fielding a full EV lineup by 2030 and to have all of its ICE models phased out by 2036, whittling down its platforms from seven to three. The first new architecture is called MLA Flex (modular longitudinal architecture), which is used for larger gas, hybrid, and all-electric SUVs and already underpins the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. The EMA (electrified modular architecture) platform will be used in mid-size models, while JEA (Jaguar electrified architecture) is a bespoke platform reserved for Jag, designed to give its models a low-slung basis for dramatically-designed vehicles.
Reviving Jaguar is no small task, but JLR brass has realized that trying to make volume products was a mistake, and that the focus should remain on modernizing classics like the E-Type – widely regarded as one of the most beautiful production vehicles in history. “It’s not that the designs [of the outgoing cars] were bad,” said Gerard McGovern, JLR’s Chief Creative Officer. “They were part of the strategy to increase Jaguar’s mainstream appeal. How do you reconcile modernism with vehicles that have a past? We’ve done it with the Defender. When these cars appear for the first time, they have to have that jaw-dropping moment.”
Photos: Jaguar
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