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Jaguar is entering the luxury electric vehicle market with a £130,000 model that “stands out” for its bold design and size, as the revamped brand has warned that electric vehicles will become “a commodity” if they all look the same.
The launch of the electric vehicle comes almost two years after Jaguar released a 30-second advert without a car, but featuring models dressed in brightly colored outfits. The rebranding exercise was criticized on social media, with some car enthusiasts and activists accusing the 91-year-old brand of “waking up” and “throwing away its heritage”.
In an interview, Rawdon Glover, Jaguar’s chief executive, said one of the lessons learned from the social media backlash was that his new model couldn’t “just be about change.” While the Jaguar Type 00 prototype was in hot pink, the new Jaguar Type 01 is also available in more subdued colors like silver and blue.
Yet the all-electric model, with a range of up to 450 miles, remains a departure from its historic design philosophy. Measuring 5.2 meters, the four-door grand tourer is huge with 23-inch wheels, a low roofline and a long hood. The “jumper” – its leaping jaguar emblem – is no longer on the front and is now laser-etched into the side of the vehicle.
With a starting price of £130,000 in the UK and $130,000 in the US, the electric vehicle will be double the price of its previous comparable models – a deliberate attempt to push further into the premium segment after more than a decade of declining sales.
“We need to put Jaguar back on solid footing,” Glover said, adding that the group will aim to become “commercially relevant” by selling fewer cars at higher prices.
Jaguar Land Rover, which is owned by Indian company Tata Motors, will target younger, more urban customers who want to “stand out”. “You don’t buy a 5.2 meter four-door GT that looks like this if you don’t want to make a dramatic entrance,” Glover added.
If all new electric vehicles conformed to “current archetypes,” such as short hoods and thin wheels, Glover warns, “they will start to look homogeneous and it will become a commodity.”
Ferrari and Bentley also launched their first electric models this year, but Jaguar is the only brand to go all-electric at a time when gasoline vehicles continue to generate higher margins and attract loyalists who prefer the roar of the internal combustion engine.
The Range Rover’s first electric SUV also appeared in September with a starting price of £154,070.
As JLR plans several more electric vehicle launches in addition to the new Jaguar, the group has also readjusted some of its previous ambitions and is converting its EV platform to enable the manufacturing of hybrid models.
The strategic recalibration comes as Chief Executive PB Balaji seeks to generate more sales in the United States, where sales have collapsed since President Donald Trump last year ended a $7,500 tax credit for purchasing electric vehicles.
JLR, which is cutting almost 10 percent of its global workforce, has faced intense competition from Chery and other Chinese manufacturers who are rapidly making inroads into the British and European markets.
In September, Chery, with its Jaecoo and Omoda brands, took a combined 9 per cent share of the UK new car sales market. Its Jaecoo 7 model, nicknamed by some “Temu Range Rover”, was the best-selling model in the country, according to the Society of Automobile Manufacturers and Traders.
Some analysts question whether Jaguar’s makeover will succeed, even though Ferrari hit its sales target this year for its new electric vehicle despite initial outcry over the Sir Jony Ive-designed model.
“In the United States, there was such a backlash from the more right-wing elements of our population — I think less because of the design itself, but because of … the perception of ‘wokeness,’ which seemed to turn a lot of people off,” said Ed Kim, chief analyst at AutoPacific, an auto market research group.
“This is despite the fact that Jaguar’s basic concept deviates less from its traditional form factor than the Luce was for Ferrari,” he added.
Additional reporting by Christian Davies in New York
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