- Jaguar will reveal a concept car that shows its future design direction on December 2.
- This concept previews the first car in a new line of more upmarket and all-electric Jaguars that will be pitched as Bentley and Porsche rivals.
- The new lineup of more expensive electric Jaguars will be comprised of three models.
As good-looking and good to drive as they are, the cars in Jaguar’s current lineup aren’t selling, and the brand has a bold plan to reinvent itself to become more relevant. The famed British marque recently stopped sales of all models in the U.K., its home market, which frankly is pretty alarming.
However, it’s coming back and being repositioned further upmarket as a Bentley rival with a range of three electric models. We’ll get our first peek at the upcoming lineup with a concept set to debut in just a few weeks.
Autocar has the low-down on the reimagining of Jaguar and the new concept, which will be shown at the Miami Art Week on December 2. The study previews the brand’s future design direction, and it’s expected to be quite a departure from what the brand has done in the past. It’s not the first time Jaguar has gone through a major design revolution, and even though Jaguar’s renowned design boss Ian Callum is no longer with the company, we’re still excited to see it.
Jaguar’s new three-strong Bentley-rivaling lineup will be comprised of a Bentayga-sized SUV, a large sedan the size of a Flying Spur, and a four-door GT car, likely a fastback similar to a Porsche Taycan. It’s the latter that Jaguar is set to preview in Miami, and the production model (expected to be revealed next year) will have 430 miles of WLTP range and over 575 horsepower. Pricing will start at just shy of $130,000 (£100,000).
All of the new, more premium electric Jags will sit on variations of the same platform. It’s called Jaguar Electric Architecture (JEA), and as its name suggests, it’s going to be exclusive to Jaguar. It won’t be shared with the group’s other brands.
Whether the new and even more premium Jaguar brand will be a success remains to be seen. By selling more expensive cars, the pool of potential buyers will be reduced, and it will push Jaguar into a segment of the market populated by brands that have decades of tradition selling cars in that price bracket. The cars making up the new trio will probably be pretty and nice to drive and offer competitive specs, but that may not be enough.
Lotus, which has been owned by Geely since 2017, has gone through a somewhat similar transformation, and its business is now split into the gas-powered sports car side, which is still based in Norfolk, and the more upmarket luxury electric side, which consists of fancy EVs made exclusively in a new factory in China. The Lotus Eletre and Emeya are pretty good cars, but they’re not better than their rivals from other automakers, and now with tariffs being imposed on Chinese-made cars, they’re going to be more expensive than they should be when imported into Europe or the United States.
Putting a new spin on an old brand can prove successful, but we’ll have to wait and see if this is a winning formula for Jaguar after its one year hiatus. One thing’s certain: Jaguar will be selling a lot fewer cars than ever, and it’s hoping for higher profit margins on each of them so that it can continue to exist.
