Future Jaguar EVs Will Be Pitched As Porsche And Bentley Rivals

Jaguar is currently struggling with sales, but instead of selling more cars, maybe it can sell more expensive cars to stay afloat.

Jaguar F-Type Reims Edition

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Jun 25, 2021 at 7:57am ET

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Jaguar is going to be put through a process of reinvention that doesn’t only mean switching to fully-electric vehicles. Under the new CEO, Therry Bolloré, the company’s aim is to push itself upmarket and attempt to rival Porsche and Bentley, not BMW and Mercedes; it has failed at that level so it’s a case of go big, or go bust (and also go electric at the same time).

So the plan is now to not only switch to making only EVs after the year 2025, a very ambitious goal in and of itself, but to also make even more exclusive vehicles that will keep the company profitable while selling in lower volumes. Therry Bolloré wants to reinvent Jaguar and tap into its heritage, but without making retro-inspired vehicles that some would describe as pastiche.

The Jaguar brand was previously reinvented in the late 2000s after it was bought by India’s Tata Motors from Ford. Under the Blue Oval, Jaguar was making profoundly retro-inspired vehicles that bore visual cues linking them with models from decades past, while under Tata (and with the help of its brilliant design boss Ian Callumn), the brand found a new identity as a thoroughly modern manufacturer whose offerings didn’t look like old Jags, yet they still retained a clear visual identity.

With the new reinvention, the brand will adopt a similar approach to what was done in 2008, when Tata took over. They will want to make the cars modern and cutting edge, but at the same time making them unmistakably Jaguar (and electric too); it also sounds like Jaguar will be pitched as an Aston Martin rival, offering vehicles in the same price bracket, that have a starting price of at least 100,000 pounds (roughly $140,000).

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It is also worth noting that Jaguar will keep all current models until the natural end of their lifecycle - they will not be prematurely pulled from the range, yet at the same time the XE, XF, E-Pace, F-Pace and I-Pace won’t be getting a direct replacement. The latter, Jaguar’s first electric vehicle, received rave reviews from many automotive journos, but just like the rest of Jag’s range, it failed to deliver when it came to sales.