Jaguar’s Future Vehicles: More Expensive, Less Overlap
Jaguar will let Land Rover handle SUVs, and focus on the kind of unique vehicles which turned it into a global icon.
Coventry has always produced niche vehicles. Even when Jaguar sales are strong, they’re still barely a rounding error in comparison Germany’s Big Three. So given how radically the automotive landscape is changing right now, and the fact that sales have been on a steady decline since 2015, you might be wondering what the path forward for Jaguar looks like. Obviously, I’ve been wondering too — and now we have some answers, courtesy Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bolloré.
Here are some of the most relevant bits from a new piece courtesy our friends across the Pond at Autocar.
The plan for Jaguar is to create ‘distinct cars with no overlap.’ They will be ‘really modern luxury cars that are the copy of nothing in style or design, the top of technology and refinement, but not looking backwards.’
‘In desire, it’s similar to Range Rover. We enjoy this type of positioning for Range Rover,’ he continued, adding that, although he is ‘not looking for volume’ for the revived Jaguar brand, he believes there is space for higher sales figures.
While Range Rover provides the business model for Jaguar to pursue, its cars won’t be SUVs or crossovers, instead uniquely shaped, lower-slung cars with no direct rivals.
Those higher sales figures, according to an interview with Auto Express and cited by Automotive News, are north of the $100k mark. So Jaguar is going to use its all-electric push to become a more expensive, more boutique automaker, and not try to compete with corporate cousin Land Rover, which is absolutely crushing the luxury SUV segment right now. Of course, this profitability comes despite the fact that Land Rovers are generally regarded to be about as sturdy as a disposable spork when it comes to reliability.
But as Bolloré says later in the Autocar piece, it’s Jaguar, not Land Rover that is currently “damaged.” As someone that’s been a Jaguar for as long as I’ve been a car fan, that was tough to read. Though after I got over the initial shock? It sounded like exactly the kind of cold, analytical assessment the brand needs to stay alive in the modern era.
‘Explaining why Jaguar is in need of such a dramatic reinvention, Bolloré said that it’s ‘damaged.’ He added: ‘The cars have never been as good as in 2021, but the positives of the brand aren’t appreciated compared with the competition.’
‘Today, when you listen to customers, they see [a Jaguar], like the car and test the car, and they still go and buy an Audi or a BMW. That’s the problem. People buy the originals, then. We aren’t the originals. We have to get the positioning of Jaguar much different, higher and more original.’
Personally, I think it’s awesome to think that going forward, Jaguar will let Land Rover handle the crossovers and SUVs, and focus on the kind of beautiful, unique, spirited vehicles which turned the brand into a global icon. In the years to come, perhaps Jaguar will become a marque more like Ferrari or Lamborghini, which sell a tiny number of cars every year — but cause a stir wherever they travel. For the record, I almost wanted to put Aston Martin in that last sentence, but decided that maybe a company that’s always flirting with receivership might not be the best example for an evolving Jaguar.
That said, there’s lots of other cool info, though few specifics, in the Autocar piece. Check it out and let me know whether you think this ambitious plan will work — and what you think will happen if it doesn’t.
Photos: Jaguar