People loved what Jaguar was, and a measure of that love was the social-media frenzy that assembled around its plans to rebrand and ‘copy nothing.’ But love never paid the bills.
When Jaguar made brave cars, like the final-shape XJ, the I-Pace, and the second-generation XK8, they all struggled to sell. When it made cautious cars, like the E-Pace and the XE, they struggled even more. Jaguar-Land Rover’s (JLR) own HQ company car park was full of Discovery and Range Rover cars, with no Jags in sight. These people couldn’t even sell a free Jaguar to themselves. This makes me concerned that this latest swerve, into brave and expensive cars, might meet a similar fate.
Everyone wanted Jaguar to be successful, but too few did the one thing that would have made it: Buying one. Can this paradox be cracked?
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I’m here to ask Jaguar managing director, Rawdon Glover, for evidence that points to success for the dramatic new direction. “We have researched this intensely,” he tells TopGear.com. “We’ve spoken to about 1,000 prospective clients, across the UK, North America, Europe, and China. We’ve talked to them in detail about our brand. And we’ve shown them the model lineup. One of the tools we use is conjoint analysis, which is very good at getting to what people are prepared to pay for a product.”
“We show them the exterior, then the interior, talk about the specification. That gives us confidence in this product proposition. It’s got to be a step change from what we do today and it's got to look like it’s worth £120,000 (P8.8 million). We put it in that context of competitor cars as well. Some people get it straight away and think it’s fantastic, want to order one. Some people, it’s not for them.”
However, because the proposed high price means more profit per car, Glover is not proposing to sell big numbers. That insight, he says, has further emboldened the team. And he stresses that it won’t just be about the cars.
“The clients told us you’ve got to change the brand and the whole ownership experience. So we’ve looked at every element because it all adds up to this term—willingness to pay.”
“The dealers will be different, presenting the cars beautifully, not just standing them on a carpet. They’ll offer you fancy food and drink, talk about collabs with artists and the like.” For owners, Jaguar plans storytelling about how the cars come to be, even dialogue with the creators. “Buyers want to be treated like an insider. They’ll have podcasts of Gerry [McGovern, design head], our engineers, access to information that they wouldn’t otherwise get. They’re joining a community.”
“The pain of servicing will be eased too. The car can automatically alert Jaguar of its own needs, so Jaguar will plan the dealer appointment and get a courtesy car—the same sort you're driving, not some pool Disco Sport, to where you need it.”
Okay but, that’s the future. Glover explains why Jaguar’s strategy so far this century couldn’t work. Jaguar is too small to play in the mass-scale premium market, however inspired some of the cars might have been. Bigger rivals could always outspend Jaguar, and so out-engineer and out-tech it, making their lead unbeatable. “It's dominated by purchasing and manufacturing efficiencies, and economies of scale.”
And creativity wasn’t enough for Jaguar. In fact, over the past 18 months things have gone bad for BMW, Mercedes, and Audi in China—one of their main profit engines. This is because Chinese buyers have switched to local-brand, high-tech cars. And that further justifies Jaguar's new high-end boutique-car strategy, says Glover.
So in his view this rocky couple of decades wasn’t caused by any deficiency in Jaguar’s image. Really? The brand is fine? So why not just invent a new one, like Lucid or HiPhi or Neo or Yangwang? Glover leans back in his chair and pauses. It’s clear he considered it, but he says the shareholders at Tata Group hold Jaguar dearly. And holds the brand dearly on many normal metrics of brand value: Spontaneous awareness, familiarity, and aspiration. In that regard, Jag scores high. “I'd turn it around and say, well, if you were one of these Chinese brands, what would you give for that?” Glover said.
He also laughs off the idea of adding his cars to the Range Rover brand, as when Porsche took a huge bifurcation by adding the Cayenne to its sports cars. JLR is busily separating Range Rover from Discovery from Defender, in their brands as well as their lineups. Jaguar has to be separate too, Glover insists. He says the new Jaguar platform isn’t just low-slung, it also has different proportions and overhangs from a Range Rover and will drive very differently.
And if Jag’s image has been corroded by mechanisms like the X-Type diesel estate or chunky golf club saloons, it might not matter by 2026 when the first new Jaguar goes on sale. Forgettable cars get forgotten. Memorable ones get remembered—especially when the dealers’ walls carry glossy prints of George Best with his E-Type, Steve McQueen with his XK-SS, ‘70s-cool XJ-Ss, and the grandest of historical saloons. The great fashion brands, he says, can revisit their heritage in a way that feels wholly modern.
One last thing. Is there actually a market for £120,000 (P8.8 million) electric cars? Jaguar will sit, in price, between the top-end premium (Mercedes-Benz EQE, Lucid, and certain Chinese brands), and the über-luxurious (Rolls-Royce and Bentley). “We think there's white space not just in price, but for a brand that's being more disruptive. People buy cars for their design and interior. Powertrain is about 13th on the list.”
Ah, the electric thing. “Lots of BEVs are quite homogenous: cab forward design, small wheels that are good for range, higher riding because of a battery. Aero means they look like a bar of soap. You end up with vehicles that don’t have emotional resonance. We’ve made the antidote. It's completely different. It’s going to have incredible presence on the road.”
But surely there are other reasons why high-end EVs are sticking? “It’s an S-curve, right? It’s been really steep. It’s flattened off. It’s going to go again. The vehicle’s going to launch in 2026 and have an eight, nine year life. I’m looking at where the market’s going. But people aren’t going to buy this because it's electric.
“They're going to buy it because they think it's beautiful and the brand resonates.”
NOTE: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
