Jaguar, as it approaches its 90th year, is trying to manifest the future it wants to inhabit. In late 2024, it revealed a revamped visual identity that reflected this imagined destiny, with a bold shift: It would become an all-electric car company.
In a 30-second reintroductory video, Jaguar portrayed an otherworldly pink landscape populated by a diverse group of mainly androgynous characters in candy-colored attire, some wielding a paintbrush or sledgehammer like a 1990s avant-garde dance troupe. It featured soft, sans-serif text, issuing commands to “break molds” and “live vivid.”
When a concept car was revealed shortly thereafter, it was intended to follow another of the videos’ dictates, one attributed to Sir William Lyons, the Jaguar founder: “Copy nothing.” This substantial two-door — the history-resetting Type 00 — introduced the design language the venerable British automaker had chosen for its reincarnation. Long-prowed, sneer-eyed, nearly windowless, and also pink, it was blunt of nose and tail and looked uncannily computer-rendered, even in real life. It succeeded in being distinctive, if it lacked Jag’s hallmark sinuous elegance.
The reaction from certain quarters was swift and harsh. President Trump, recently elected for a second term, called the relaunch imagery “stupid,” “woke,” “A TOTAL DISASTER” and “disgraceful” in a social media post.
But Jaguar was being discussed, receiving attention it hadn’t garnered since it last peaked, back in the mid- to late 20th century, with stylish aspirational vehicles like the E-Type sports coupe and roadster, the first-generation XJ sedan and the XJ-S grand tourer. And while the new look had plenty of detractors, it was nevertheless bold and confident.
“It all started with a reinvention brief,” said Rawdon Glover, Jaguar’s managing director. He’ was referring to the automaker’s “Reimagine” strategy, part of a five-year, $20 billion investment in Jaguar and its sister brand Land Rover by India’s Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Limited, of which both are wholly owned subsidiaries.
This strategy was initiated in early 2021. Among its first casualties was the brand’s previous effort at an electric flagship, a sedan it had spent over $500 million developing. It was scrapped as too traditional.
The new-new strategy, according to Mr. Glover, is to “break with convention.” It aims to take the brand further upmarket, focus on innovation and enhance exclusivity and desirability through diminished production. In short, it’s aiming at wealthy buyers.
“These new Jaguar drivers are going to be independently minded, with a love of craft and interesting technology,” Mr. Glover said. “But actually wanting something that stands out and that’s different is going to be their most consistent unifying thought.”
To this end, Jaguar’s forthcoming production car — the Type 01 — will be an improbably low four-door hatchback, clocking 1,000-plus horsepower, with giant 23-inch wheels, no rear windshield, a four-seat cabin and a graceful if needlessly long hood — housing no engine underneath. It will have around 400 miles of range. And it will be priced around $130,000, above most offerings from Mercedes and BMW but below the rarefied positions of Bentley or Aston Martin.
This price is double what the average Jaguar fetched in 2020. In this move upmarket, the brand will borrow a page from its stablemate, Land Rover, and its highly successful Range Rover and Defender models. Average Land Rover transaction prices have now crested the $100,000 mark, twice the industry average, and up nearly 30 percent over the brand’s pre-pandemic levels.
“And that’s exactly the model that we’re working for at Jaguar,” said David Doody, the Jaguar Type 01’s program chief.
Yet Land Rover sells luxury gas-powered S.U.V.s, among the automotive market’s most in-demand and profitable segments, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Jaguar will relaunch solely with a six-figure electric sedan.
“If you look at the market for high-end E.V.s, it’s not doing well,” said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president for market research at the Detroit automotive consulting firm Telemetry.
He cites struggles for venerable brands like Mercedes-Benz, which suspended production of its EQS electric luxury sedan in the United States last year owing to slow sales, as well as for start-ups like Lucid, whose domestic sales have recently tumbled for its Air sedan. Even Tesla, which has long dominated the category with its Model S, recently ceased production of that vehicle, without announcing a replacement.
“Jaguar’s launching with a big electric car,” said Mr. Abuelsamid, “in a market where there’s less interest than there was in electrification, and in sedans.”
Competitors — including Porsche, Maserati and Bentley — have sharply curtailed or delayed electric transitions. BMW and Audi have shifted production plans to favor gas or hybrid options. Neither is an alternative for Jaguar, which has gone all-in on electrification, with no contingency.
The hood of the new Jag “is so low, the car is so low, that even if you wanted to put a conventional gas engine in there, you couldn’t,” said Andrew Wheel, Jaguar Land Rover’s director of production design and quality. “We’ve designed it entirely around the battery electric vehicle architecture.” At a recent Investor Day conference, P.B. Balaji, the Jaguar chief executive, reaffirmed the brand’s unyielding commitment to full electrification.
And while hostilities in the Middle East, and gasoline price fluctuations, have pushed some Americans to reconsider electric vehicles, such issues may not hit Jaguar’s target consumers. “Customers that are buying vehicles at this price point are generally less sensitive to fuel prices,” Mr. Abuelsamid said.
Still, all carmakers are battling global headwinds. “In the automotive industry, you’re making big capital investments with a long payoff — so what you want is stability, and what we haven’t got is any of that,” Mr. Glover said, bluntly.
To clear the slates for its reinvention, Jaguar is winding down production and sales of its previous gas-powered vehicles. What will success for Jaguar look like?
“We’re not wanting to be a volume business,” Mr. Glover said. “If we control our material costs, if we’re able to transact at that $130,000 price point, then I think there’s definitely a viable business case.”
In the meantime, as they await the transition, Jaguar dealers have few new cars to sell. “It’s a challenge for them,” Mr. Glover acknowledged.
In contrast, Dan Fields, the chairman of the JLR Retailer Cabinet — an advisory council representing dealer interests to the manufacturer — sees “hope and curiosity” and even “excitement” among his peers, especially as details and specifications for the forthcoming model clarify.
Mr. Fields has had success selling outstanding electric luxury vehicles, ones that exist in what he calls “a category of one-of-one.” These include E.V.s from Rolls-Royce or Cadillac, brands for which his Fields Auto Group also maintains retail franchises. “And Jaguar has done that better than anybody,” he said.
Jaguar has locked in the design and propulsion system and all other hardware for its sleek new sedan, and is completing final calibration of vehicle dynamics, according to Mr. Glover. Heavily camouflaged versions have been spied undergoing testing on tracks and in extreme weather conditions around the world. The car will have a public unveiling in October in New York. Orders are expected to open at the end of this year, with initial deliveries in summer 2027.
Mr. Abuelsamid expects an electric S.U.V. to follow shortly thereafter. This may draw additional interest, as may shifting regulatory priorities or consumer opinions following the American elections in 2026 and 2028.
Still, he worries for this storied marque, despite its compelling history and positioning. “It’s going to be a challenge for Jaguar to be successful as they launch this vehicle and subsequent models,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s going to work for them.”
