Early on, Sir William Lyons, the company’s founder, and CEO, would present a new model to the press and inquire as to how much they believed it should cost. Almost often, the hackers overestimated.
According to Sir William in 1977, “We did seem to gain a reputation for producing cars that were very reasonably priced.” “I believe we succeeded because we handled the business effectively and profitably. We succeeded to gain the trust and support of our employees without wasting money.
However, since last week, some have asserted that Sir William will be spinning like the crankshaft of a renowned straight-six engine produced by his company. Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced a significant slimming exercise, with the present six-model Jaguar line-up being phased out in favor of a three-model, all-electric range that will debut at the end of next year and go on sale in 2025. The first is a four-door gran turismo with a 430-mile range and a starting price of £100,000.
Jaguar was once a pioneer in the field of battery electric cars (BEVs) with its 2018 I-Pace SUV, which earned sales, accolades, and awards such as 2019 Car of the Year. Jaguar’s electrification effort appeared to be on track, with a much-anticipated electric version of the XJ saloon approaching completion and another battery model in the works.
The firm then vanished, almost literally. Profits and sales both fell. That wasn’t just due to Covid or a lack of semiconductor computer chips. The electric XJ was dropped, and the replacement models for sports cars, SUVs, and saloons went black.
And now that we know there will be no more Jaguar models, owners of the Austrian-made I-Pace and E-Pace, as well as cars manufactured at the company’s Castle Bromwich facility (the XE, XF, F-Type, and Solihull-built F-Pace), will have to search elsewhere.
Sales of these vehicles are already declining as the manufacturer reduces the number of choices and models available. In fact, overall UK Jaguar registrations over the last 20 years appear to be as dizzying as an Alton Towers rollercoaster, peaking around model introductions such as 35,544 in 2017 when the F-Pace SUV was in full swing and 36,069 in 2019 when the smaller E-Pace did similarly. At all other times, UK registrations have hovered far below that. In 2011 only 13,787 were sold, while in 2022 Jaguar’s UK sales had fallen to a parlous 12,165 units.
Worldwide Jaguar sales have followed a similar trajectory, rising from less than 100,000 units per year pre to 2015 to more than 150,000 in 2018 and 2019, then falling again when the Covid epidemic and chip shortages struck. While insiders say Jaguar contributes significantly to parent company JLR’s overall profitability and heft in terms of R&D and economies of scale, sales figures like these across a six-strong model range is insufficient to sustain a single factory, let alone a future for Sir William’s famed marque.
Jaguar’s difficulty is that it can’t continue its new-model sales momentum and fails to obtain repeat business. There have also been concerns about dependability, which were raised at last week’s presentation.
“We spend a lot of time on quality,” said JLR CEO Adrian Mardell, “and faults per vehicle have been reduced by 30% in the last three years.” However, some of the quality in the past has been unacceptable.”
Yet, at last week’s rambling, jargon-heavy presentation in Gaydon, Warwickshire, there was little acknowledgment of the consequences of abandoning Jaguar’s existing customers.
Over the next 12 to 18 months, the current vehicle lineup will be phased out. There was no mention of layoffs for JLR’s existing 40,000 employees, albeit Castle Bromwich is only being kept as a parts-stamping facility, with the expectation that the remainder of the area will be taken up by undisclosed “partners.”
It’s all part of JLR’s Reimagine strategy, which aims to improve not just the vehicles it makes, but also the way it offers them to customers.
JLR’s chief creative officer Gerry McGovern couldn’t help but poke fun at Jaguar’s former head designers Ian Callum and Julian Thomson while extolling the agonizing “House of Brands” idea. McGovern stated, citing Sir William’s direction that Jaguar designs be “a replica of nothing,” that “it wasn’t because the designs were awful, it was about competing in mass markets… [New] Jaguar will be nothing like anything else – they need that jaw-dropping moment.”
McGovern stated that “Jaguar will be radically reimagined” with designs that “will be shocking at first” and will be influenced by his catchphrases: “Exuberant modernism; unique; fearless; and progressive.”
While McGovern and Mardell said they would take existing customers with them, a six-figure entry price will exclude almost all of them, as McGovern acknowledged when he said he was looking to appeal to “not just old customers… [but] different customers, the more creative, the more culturally driven, the more artistic – we believe what we are doing.”
Think multimillionaire artists like Damien Hirst instead of any old dauber starving in a garret.
Steve Saxty is an Englishman who worked on branding and product development for Ford, Mazda, and the FutureBrand consultancy before becoming Jaguar’s worldwide brand communications director in 2010. He is also the author of numerous books about the inner workings of automotive design and product development, such as The Cars You Always Promised Yourself and Secret Fords.
I inquired about the severity of the situation. “When you consider that they are about to consolidate all production into essentially one model that won’t go on sale for another two years, it speaks for itself,” he argues. “The numbers are dire, and I believe the market has simply stopped caring about them.”
Also, judging these cars is difficult for Britons because of the stories we tell ourselves about them: celluloid bankrobbers in snarling Jaguar Mk2 saloons, Simon Dee and the latest starlet in a white E-Type sports car, and shady used-car dealers in XJ saloons. Jaguar’s great history is our past, and it’s difficult to remove ourselves from it. There was also some muddled brand messaging when Jaguar was passed around between the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and British Leyland throughout the years.
McGovern advocated for stripped-down branding simplicity, but his speech demonstrated anything but, hopping from one set of meaningless guiding principles (“curation, future-facing, effortless, engaging, reductive, global citizenship, and unique”) to another: “In the luxury world, the brand is what makes the luxury experience [with] purpose, values, storytelling, communications, retail, and an app,” he said.
Saxty, on the other hand, keeps things simple. “To be successful, a brand must have relevance, credibility, differentiation, and long-term survivability,” he argues. “For all the emotion expended on Jaguar, which at times resembles the nostalgia of The Last Of The Summer Wine, when we used to ask people about Jaguar, they loved the name but couldn’t actually list a single current model.”
Saxty, like McGovern, believes the rot began when Jaguar attempted to compete with German marques with vehicles such as the X-Type and subsequently the XE.
“Chasing volume is something that Jaguar isn’t very good at for a variety of reasons, not just budgets,” he explains. “And many of the cars are similar to the XFR.” Everyone thinks it’s a beautiful automobile, but you’d never buy one.”
Furthermore, he believes JLR dealers have been almost heroic in pushing cars with dubious reliability to a buying public. “In selling, they perform miracles,” Saxty adds. “However, with Land Rover 4×4 products, dealers had cars that were relevant, credible, and distinguished themselves.”
He also mentions Jaguar’s perplexing model naming scheme. “What exactly is an E-Pace SUV when it isn’t electrified?” Is the ‘pace’ reference to Jaguar’s famous 1950s motto Grace, Pace, and Space? Does the typical 35-year-old know or care?”
Despite all of the marketing bluster last week, there isn’t much of a future; simply put, there aren’t enough people purchasing Jaguars.
“We do magic in the Midlands,” Mardell stated as he introduced himself. Adrian, there’s simply not enough fizz in your wand.
In fact, the plan to persuade the world to love a £100,000-plus electric Jaguar would appear to be wishful thinking if JLR hadn’t turned things around with the new Land Rover Defender, Range Rover, and Range Rover Sport; all highly desirable vehicles that have sold well and made the company a lot of money.
The new Jaguar brand will be able to share drivetrains, batteries, and other components with other JLR models. Some wealthy buyers will appreciate the absence of historical baggage.
“Can it work?” Saxty wonders. “It seemed credible. McGovern isn’t a moron; the time lost after canceling the Ian Callum XJ model so late in the day was big financial damage to their bottom line. So their new four-door GT must now fill that void and be a success in order for the brand to retain any equity.”
Furthermore, he claims that if JLR can profitably resurrect the brand, it may have some additional unlocked value as a trim level on Land Rover products. “It could be highly profitable with Jaguar hived off as a halo brand for the rest of JLR’s products.”
Personally, I believe it is an upward stretch of the name that will break the magical elastic. Jaguar was designed to achieve a number of things that it couldn’t truly deliver in the past. It’s difficult not to perceive Jaguar’s present ambitious ambition as yet another Herculean attempt that will fail until it becomes like the Daimler nameplate, imprisoned up in a cobwebby chamber at JLR’s Solihull HQ like an automotive Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. All we can do is wait and see.
