What is going on at Jaguar?

5 hours ago

Drive

The legacy British car maker is bidding goodbye to its 90-year sports car heritage in favour of a new electric car chapter, complete with an image overhaul.

British heritage manufacturer Jaguar has overhauled its branding to coincide with an all-new electric line-up set to launch by 2026 after previously announcing a pause on new car production in its home UK market.

While the demand for electric car sales has cooled down globally, the UK marque has doubled down on its decision to electrify its entire line-up, dropping a teaser of what its new battery-powered chapter will look like.

Among its new design philosophies includes a fresh signature font for its revised label spelt ‘JaGuar’, a ‘JR’ monogram logo, and a revamped version of the iconic Leaper design.

Perhaps more controversially, the British car maker dropped its iconic ‘Growler’ badging – a Jaguar head logo commonly seen on the grilles and bonnets of previous models – to close the book on its 90-year sports car heritage.

According to Adrian Mardell, the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, the decision to refresh the brand’s image was a long time coming as the car maker struggled to stand out among key rivals like Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW.

“It [Jaguar] wasn’t always distinctive enough in the last decade. In 2021, a strategy was born to elevate our brand in a world of luxury,” Mardell told UK media.

Rawdon Glover, Jaguar’s Managing Director, said the brand anticipates "a lot of new customers", with an expectation that 80-to-90 per cent of the refreshed car maker's clientele to be first-time buyers.

Jaguar has previously stated it is aims to take a step up in the luxury car market, challenging the likes of Porsche, Bentley, and Rolls-Royce with its new electric line-up.

A teaser image for a new concept model, called Design Vision Concept, that is set to be unveiled at Miami Art Week in the US later this year has been released, but as previously reported by Drive, the first battery-powered model from the British marque was also spotted testing in the UK with an expected 2025 global launch.

While Jaguar has remained tight-lipped on what the electric four-door GT will be called, it’s touted as the successor to the XJ, a mid-sized luxury sedan that was discontinued in 2019 following a 51-year run on the global market.

When asked where it sees itself in the market with this reinvented image, a Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Australia spokesperson told Drive the upcoming “reimagined Jaguar will be a copy of nothing”.

Furthermore, Australia will remain insulated from the cessation of sales, with a spokesperson for Jaguar Land Rover Australia telling Drive the brand has "sufficient vehicle supply of relevant models from the current Jaguar line-up to meet customer demand through the calendar year of 2025".

Jaguar Australia sales have increased so far this year, recording 656 sales to the end of October – up 50 per cent year-on-year – but the brand is still among the lowest selling marques in the country, slightly ahead of others like Alfa Romeo (510) and Fiat (466).

It is worth noting other car makers have scaled back their electrification plans, with the likes of Volvo, Porsche and Audi adjusting global targets amid declining global demand for electric cars.

Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.