Jaguar made waves when it unveiled a bizarre teaser video that initiated a brand reset for the British luxury car company. Images of heritage, history, and performance gave way to images of abstract images, bizarre colors, and a small group of serious/sad-looking models doing strange things. So far, reactions from around the world have been negative with many critics saying that Jaguar has gone off course.
That said, is this brand reset the renewed injection of vigor that Jaguar needs, and if it is, can it help Jaguar be a viable contender in the EV segment as it attempts to appeal to a wealthier clientele that might otherwise buy a Bentley or even a Rolls Royce product?
Jaguar is going down a very abstract rabbit hole
Jaguar was always known as a brand that took great pride in promoting its heritage, history, and luxury with many of their models often embodying one or all of these pillars. This was also reflected in the way dealerships trained their employees. Putting a strong focus on promoting the brand’s heritage and British character was a core lesson that product trainers drilled into every employee even the hourly workers. I had a chance to see that in action during my time as a dealer employee, working at a showroom for clost to four years before my career path took me elsewhere.
As such, Jaguar’s trip down the abstract rabbit hole was quite a shock for many enthusiasts with decades of heritage-based marketing being replaced by odd visages, splashes of color, and robotic fashion models doing strange actions that would be unthinkable in Jaguar marketing 10 to 20 years ago. The intent here is to shock and awe with Jaguar obviously doing that in spades after consumers and pundits had a chance to react to the fallout. The fallout here is that Jaguar is willing to ditch its links to the past and instead boldly go into the future with some of this new beginning being previewed by a new letter script for the Jaguar name itself.
A mixture of upper and lowercase letters is now being used with the capitalized “J” “G” and U” attempting to make a bold statement to those who say the name (especially individuals who regularly mispronounce it when engaged in conversation.) The tweaked script is also accompanied by new artist and maker’s marks which attempt to paint the brand as a trendy fashion-focused brand though some loyalists might find the pace of change to be too rapid and bold for their tastes.
Can Jaguar’s spearhead EV defy expectations?
With all of the attention focused on Jaguar’s… rather interesting marketing choices, it can be easy to forget that the company will be debuting an all-new EV. This EV will be the first in a new generation of EVs that the brand will produce with the company promising it will be a massive leap forward from its last EV, the I-Pace. The new model is supposed to be a GT car and while Jaguar released the first few images after its marketing debut went viral, there are some pretty interesting clues that begin to emerge from the surface once you have a chance to ignore the marketing fluff.
The two teaser images that Jaguar released of the EV show that it will have a coupe like shape with the rear haunches and the core design of the rear (more on that later) having a faint resemblance to the vintage Jaguar E-Type specifically the early 1960’s version which was once considered to be one of the most stylish luxury cars in the world before later versions sacrificed some of that magic to comply with new safety laws that were passed in the 1970s and the need for a bigger engine with a V12 finding is way under the bonnet before it went out of production.
This resemblance might please some buyers who have fond memories of that car but we’re still stumped in regards to the horizontal vents in the center of the rear. They might be some sort of cooling element but until we get to formally see the car once and for all, we are left to only speculate about its purpose. A second teaser image also shows a lighted piece on the side of the vehicle that’s hidden by a small retractable door. This might be a sensor of some kind but as stated earlier, only time will tell. In the meantime, Jaguar also released several photos of a heavily wrapped version of the production bound EV to serve as a sample of what could be a compelling entree when it’s unveiled to the world.
When will we see it?
Jaguar says that it will be formally unveiling the car on December 2nd in Miami, Florida. The car will certainly make a splash, but buyers that are interested in owning the sleek Jaguar for themselves will have to wait awhile to get their chance to go behind the wheel, JLR CEO Adrian Mardell recently said the company’s first new EV won’t go on sale until 2026. This timetable will give Jaguar time to iron out the bugs and make sure that this spearhead EV will be able to get Jaguar’s rebranding off on the right track. As for the concept, it will definitely answer some immediate questions that not only customers will have, but also dealerships wondering what they can expect when it enters showrooms.
These franchises will have a very tall order on their plates as they will not only be tasked with selling the model outright, but also making any necessary upgrades to both their facilities and training to ensure that the model is marketed and sold correctly. That’s on top of dealing with a slump in sales with franchises having to rely heavily on either the Land Rover lineup or the aging Jaguar F-Pace to make it through an initial drought of new product from Jaguar before the reboot fully kicks in.
Carl Malek has been an automotive journalist for over 10 years. First starting out as a freelance photographer before making the transition to writing during college, his work has appeared on numerous automotive forums as well as websites such as Autoshopper.com.
Carl is also a big fan of British vehicles with the bulk of his devotion going to the Morgan Motor Company as well as offerings from Lotus, MG, and Caterham. When he is not writing about automobiles, Carl enjoys spending time with his family and friends in the Metro Detroit area, as well as spending time with his adorable pets.