Farewell then Jaguar, it was nice driving your cars while it lasted, which was just over 90 years. The marque if not dead already is certainly on the way to becoming a heritage brand, parked in museums and celebrated by enthusiast clubs in the past tense.
There can be no other conclusion as the news is that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will be cancelling all Jaguar models apart from the F-Pace. The reason for this is their long stated intention to reinvent themselves as an EV-only luxury brand. That means the E-Pace and electric I-Pace, both assembled by Magna Steyr in Austria, will now be withdrawn, following on from the Castle Bromwich-made XE, XF and F-Type, that ended production in June 2024.
Looking at 2023 sales it is clear that the modest figures show that the leading model is the SUV F-Pace at 21,943, followed by the smaller E-Pace version at 7897. Then the electricity model which JLR very much see as their future, in the shape of the outgoing I-Pace accounted for just 4874 sales.
If anything, the future is SUV shaped especially as the majority (59%) of JLR’s half year sales (111,180) comprise the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Defender.
The head of JLR, Adrian Mardell told investors according to Automotive News Europe said, “We are eliminating five products, all lower value. None of those are vehicles on which we made any money, so we are replacing them with new vehicles on newly designed architectures.”
What is coming next year is a 600bhp electric four seat GT like a Porsche Taycan. After that in 2026 comes a luxury SUV modelled on the Bentley Bentayga.
I am sure JLR know what they are doing, (I would though point to some questionable marketing associations with cartoon characters and cultural promotions) the trouble is, do they have any idea of just what they have lost?
There isn’t enough room to explain where Jaguar have gone wrong recently, let alone over so many decades. In the short term aping the electric Porsche whose sales are falling and a very luxury niche Bentley.
Jaguar was aspirational, good value, sporting, a bit of a rogue and rather cool. It is now none of those things. How it can possibly survive is open to question. That leaping cat badge can of course be sold off by the Indian owners to be glued to the front of any random Chinese EV and that seem to be the most obvious fate.
As major European manufacturers including Mercedes and Audi are realising the error of making all their future production dependent on batteries, Jaguar are committed to a trajectory that can only destroy them.
What I found significant was that on the Jaguar media site there is nothing which refers to the company founder, Sir William Lyons. Presumably he is somewhere spinning like a top as the company he founded is betrayed. There is no understanding of the principles that founded Jaguar Cars. Grace, Space, Pace was one of them, more accurately, the description of them as being ‘A Bond Street Bentley’, is almost perfect. For younger readers what that means is that Jags really were a bit, Arthur Daley out of Minder. Oh and if that is too obscure, essentially Jags were bought as the best value sports and luxury cars, both new and used.
Jaguar also have one of the richest motorsport histories. They have nothing to prove. As a competent, profitable, independent motor manufacturer, doing that is now impossible.
RIP Jaguar.
Here is an advert that will never be bettered or used again…
