'It's a complete brand reinvention': How stopping new launches for five years will rebirth Jaguar as an electric-only Rolls-Royce and Bentley rival: Report

Jaguar’s coming back, but not as we know it. The storied British marque is in the middle of its ‘no new cars for five years’ strategy on a journey to full reinvention.

Instead of an Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz rival, the British marque is bullish it will return as a Bentley and Rolls-Royce battler. 

The goal of the coming three-strong all-electric line-up is to make buyers want to pay A$240,000 for Jag’s new models, according to recently appointed Jaguar MD Rawdon Glover who spoke to Top Gear magazine. 

It is a bold strategy that will leave Jaguar completely devoid of new cars to sell, at least in the UK, by the end of this year as the F-Pace SUV bows out of production. 

“We need to take [the brand] back to when we made beautiful desirable cars, not in huge numbers and not having huge numbers in the portfolio. Until recently we were up to six or seven models," Glover told Top Gear. 

The proposed solution is to return to Jaguar’s ‘spiritual home’ of three vehicles, though the new models are unlikely to mirror Jags of the past such as the E-Type, XJ or Mark II sedan. It’s also not likely the C-X75 supercar will come back as a Bugatti-baiting hypercar. 

1961 Jaguar E-Type convertible

The first model we’ll get a glimpse of is a sharply-styled liftback four-door with a production model promised to have 700km of all-electric driving range. Then, Jaguar’s expected to roll out a pair of SUVs using the same architecture and styling language. 

“It’s not just some new cars, it’s a complete brand reinvention,” insists Glover, who mentions the mystique needed in the ultra-luxury sphere: “Luxury brands create irrational need. No-one needs a Hermes work bag."

“With every decision we make, we ask ‘is this going to make people think about Jaguar the way we need them to?' If it doesn’t make them want to pay £120,000 (A$240,000) we don’t do it,” Glover told Top Gear. 

2024 Jaguar I-Pace Black Edition

Such a strategy has never been carried out, at least in recent history with a brand as storied as Jaguar, but it’s not based entirely on hope. The Range Rover sub-brand has been elevated from a Land Rover range-topper to its own, very profitable, entity.  

Glover admitted Jaguar’s plans will need to go beyond just the vehicles and into the full ownership experience. The marque is looking to correct some of the less savoury I-Pace experiences — ugly third-party home charging solutions, for example. 

"You have to remember 95 per cent of charging is done at home,” said Glover, referencing a potential partnership with a style-first wallbox provider. There will also be a simple public charging solution, reducing application clutter on your smartphone. 

Jaguar XJ220 badge

“We’ll have aggregated charging, where you have one membership to use all chargers – including access to the Tesla Superchargers,” Glover explained. That’s something anyone who’s used a public EV charger will appreciate. 

In Australia, Jaguar is expecting to have stock of the current range until late 2025, despite production of F-type, XE and XF having already ceased.