Jaguar to reinvent itself as Ev-only Aston Martin rival
Radical ‘Reimagine’ strategy outlined by new CEO reveals plans to offer fully electric variants of all JLR products by 2030
Jaguar is to be reinvented as an electric-only upmarket luxury brand with an entirely fresh line-up from 2025 onwards as part of a bold new plan to revive the fortunes of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Under the transformation strategy, Land Rover will launch six electric vehicles within the next five years, including one electric-only model.
The radical repositioning of Jaguar from a premium saloon brand into an EV rival to Bentley and Aston Martin is key to the British car maker’s new ‘Reimagine’ strategy, which has been developed by new CEO Thierry Bolloré. The plan includes a target for the firm to become a net-zeroco2 business by 2039, to be achieved in part through heavy investment in electric and hydrogen technology.
As well as Jaguar going electric-only from 2025 onwards, JLR has pledged all of its nameplates will be offered in fully electric form by 2030, with the first dedicated electric Land Rover model scheduled to go on sale in 2024. The target is for 100% of Jaguar sales and 60% of Land Rover sales to be fully electric by the end of the decade.
The firm has also committed to the phasing out of diesel engines in new models by 2026, and it is pressing ahead with the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology for future models.
While JLR is aiming to dramatically reorganise and simplify its manufacturing processes and overall structure, Bolloré has pledged that none of the firm’s manufacturing sites will be closed, although the Castle Bromwich plant – where Jaguar’s struggling saloons are currently built – will cease being used for car production.
Bolloré said the Reimagine plan involves the firm shifting to emphasise “quality over volume,” with a focus on becoming “the supplier of the most desirable vehicles for discerning customers”. With Jaguar now pitched at modern luxury buyers, Land Rover will continue with its focus on premiummarket off-road models.
“Jaguar and Land Rover will have two clear unique personalities, rooted in their rich history to give two distinct choices for customers,” said Bolloré. Jaguar’s radical transformation
Jaguar’s sales have fallen sharply in recent years as the market has shifted away both from sports cars and from saloons, such as the XE and XF, that have been the core of the brand’s range. While Jaguar has enjoyed success with its E-pace and F-pace SUVS in recent years, those models have often been pitched at similar customers as Land Rover’s line-up.
As a result, Jaguar’s future direction has been the subject of much debate within JLR. As exclusively
reported by Autocar in 2018, a plan to switch to an electriconly line-up has been under consideration for some time and is a natural progression given the inexorable industry trend towards electrification. That original idea was based on the widespread acclaim for the electric I-pace, the first and so far only fully electric vehicle that JLR has produced.
The new Ev-only plan for Jaguar announced by Bolloré is an entirely fresh one, however, and it involves an arguably more significant step: a radical shift in Jaguar’s market positioning from a premium sports car firm rivalling BMW and Mercedes-benz to a highend luxury brand intended to take on Bentley and Aston Martin. Bolloré said the brand will undergo a “dramatic” transformation “to take a new luxurious position in the market to realise its unique potential not just for customers but for the business as a whole”.
It’s understood that future models will target such an audience through the use of ‘emotional’ designs along with advanced nextgeneration technologies, such as connected car services. Sources suggest the vehicles will be pitched at different markets from any current models, reflecting the likely substantial shifts taking place in the luxury car market due to electrification. The push to luxury will also allow Jaguar to target higher-end affluent customers prepared to pay higher premiums, ensuring that profitability isn’t hit by a move away from volume. It also means that Jaguar won’t be competing for volume sales in markets with bigger rivals.
The key to achieving that repositioning will be a new pure-electric architecture that the firm says will be exclusively used by the Jaguar brand for future models. The first model on this platform could appear in 2025, although no details have yet been revealed.
It is likely that early models will build on the I-pace’s success . Bolloré has been impressed with the electric crossover since his arrival and says he can see ways to make it “better and better”.
Given the timeframe, there is a strong possibility that the first EV built on the new platform could be a secondgeneration I-pace, adopting a similar coupé-crossover bodystyle to the current model but with a bold new design.
❝ Jaguar will undergo a dramatic transformation to take a new luxurious position in the market ❞