Jaguar Responds To Falling Sales By Raising Prices – A Lot! – CleanTechnica

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

---

Usually when sales fall, manufacturers cut prices to stimulate demand. But at Jaguar — the iconic brand that was once one of the crown jewels of the British automotive industry — sales have been falling and falling and falling for so long that Tata Motors, which owns Jaguar at the present time, has decided to tear up the old playbook and create a new one. The emphasis now will not be on selling vehicles to upscale buyers in the mass market, but rather to truly wealthy customers who are less interested in transportation and more interested in having a shiny new bauble to add to their charm bracelet lives. That means a total rebranding, starting with a slick new marketing campaign.

Are you impressed? If the answer is no, you are not alone. The new branding has engendered hoots of derision from all corners of the auto ecosphere, including Elon Musk, who Xed, “Do you sell cars?” Bloomberg reports that one X user described it as “woke garbage.” Another asked “WTF?” On Instagram, someone inquired “Have you been hacked?” Another X user asked, “What the actual hell is this?” To which Jaguar replied: “The future.”

The new Jaguar will appear in 2026, and will be all-electric when it does. “They’re trying to break with the past and invent something new,” Gabor Schreier, chief creative officer at Saffron Brand Consultants, told Bloomberg. “That video is a provocation.” Schreier’s past clients include Daimler when it was launching the Smart brand. He said the new reimagining of the Jaguar brand hints at desperation. “All these established carmakers are in panic mode. They’re trying to hide it, but they are in terrible panic mode, and running into a sort of schizophrenia where they don’t know if they belong to the old combustion world, or to the new EV world.”

Jaguar will unveil a concept vehicle at the Miami Art Week on December 2, 2024. It posted a teaser photo that shows the left rear corner of that car and it has done little to calm the commotion about where the brand is heading. Feast your eyes on this, CleanTechies!

Does that make your heart go pitter-patter? No? Most everyone who has seen it would agree. The reaction has been so universally negative — one journalist said it looked like an air conditioner — that the company’s chief creative officer Gerry McGovern felt the need to reassure the press that the design team had “not been sniffing the white stuff.” At a press conference earlier this month, CEO Adrian Mardell also admitted the new look might be a bit polarizing. He said Jaguar expected to sell fewer cars, but at much higher prices, to luxury buyers. “The setup for this brand as we relaunch it in 2026 is going to be spot-on. We’re confident that, as we roll out and when we come back, this is going to be something very, very special, and appeal to lots of existing and new clients.” Some may see his words as akin to whistling in the dark.

Jaguar Reimagined

A brand needs symbols, and the new Jaguar brand will have lots of new branding to showcase its new direction. Car and Driver reports there will be a trio of new design values that are “exuberant, modernist, and compelling.” Jaguar says it is “not afraid to polarize” with its new approach, which is a good thing, because polarizing may be too mild a word for what’s next. The new look has four key elements — two logos, a typeface, a color palette, and a graphic code called “strikethrough.”

The typeface looks crisp and modern, with the word “Jaguar” spelled out in a mix of lowercase and uppercase letters on a backdrop that features a “strikethrough,” motif,  described by the company as a graphic code for the brand that features a series of horizontal lines within a rectangular border. Notably, the “strikethrough” also appears in the new “leaper” logo which features a more angular interpretation of the traditional pouncing cat. Sharp-eyed readers will immediately notice how the “strikethrough” is echoed in the exterior design of the concept shown above. We are not at all sure quite certain the new design will get noticed.

The traditional logo depicting the face of a jaguar will be replaced by a new circular badge that draws on the new typeface with a “J” and a “r” situated in a circle and the two letters presented in brass and linked to the curved border. It will be offset by a bold new color palette which Jaguar says will build on primary colors such as red, blue, and yellow to embody the concept of “exuberance.”

What About The Cars?

Jaguar says it will focus on design, claiming that styling is what will differentiate its electric cars from the competition. The company describes the current crop of EVs as a homogeneous mass of high-riding, cab forward, aerodynamic-focused blobs. Ouch! That’s gotta hurt. In fact, there is some truth to that criticism, as aerodynamic efficiency is critical to building long range EVs. Of course, if you prefer cars that look like a barn door, all you need is to increase the size of the battery pack. If cost is no object, there will be plenty of room in the price to account for the cost of a larger pack. Judging by the camouflaged prototypes the company is testing, 150 kWh or larger batteries may be the norm for the new land panzers from Jaguar if they are to achieve their range targets. The new electric cars from Jaguar will be compatible with the Tesla Supercharger network without needing an adapter, implying a NACS-style charging port.

Car and Driver says the proportions of the prototype are in line with traditional gas-powered luxo barges instead of the soap bar shape seen on EVs like the Mercedes-Benz EQS. Interestingly, Jaguar chose not to start its rebirth with an SUV, which might prove more popular, believing the first vehicle isn’t meant to drive volume but instead establish the brand’s new, more exclusive position.

To explain the move upmarket, Jaguar said that while it was proud of its products over the past couple of decades, the decision to pursue a mass market premium strategy to compete with the likes of BMW and Mercedes led to cars that weren’t distinct enough. Now it aims to make “spectacular” vehicles that will attract customers not just because they are electric, but because they stand out.

It claims the vast majority of people don’t buy cars because of the powertrain. Instead, their buying decisions are emotional and based on design, brand, and experience. Jaguar says it wants to elevate every aspect of the brand, from the purchasing process to the ownership experience. The higher prices — which will be roughly double those of its existing cars — will mean it only expects to retain 10 to 15% of its current customer base. Jaguar says it is targeting younger, wealthier, and more urban shoppers, described by the company as “design-minded” and “cash rich, time poor.”

The Takeaway

Jaguar is correct. People buy on emotion and justify their decision later with facts. The truth is, the Jaguar legend was based on the great thumping straight-six dual overhead cam XK engine first conceived by William Lyons in 1938. It is the engine that thrust Jaguar into the forefront of the automotive world. At a time when American cars struggled to go much faster than 65 mph, the XK 120 could do 120 mph all day long. The XK 140 raised the ante to 140 mph and the XK 150 topped that at 150 mph — unheard of speeds at the time. Then came the XK-E, the car Enzo Ferrari called the most beautiful car ever made.

Not much is left of the Jaguar legend today. The mighty XK engine has long since gone out of production, replaced with a succession of warmed-over production engines that can barely be heard over all the soundproofing and NVH improvements that define modern cars. With the engine de-emphasized to the point of irrelevance, Jaguar had nothing much left to attract customers, which led to its long decline. Will new branding save the once legendary brand? If you are cash-rich and time-poor, perhaps it will. But from the rooftop infinity pool at CleanTechnica global headquarters, that seems a stretch. “We’ll see,” said the Zen Master from the hot tub nearby.