If the main indicator of success for Jaguar’s relaunch this week was controversy, they’ve ticked the box admirably.
Rarely has a new brand logo and ad campaign in the car world caused such chatter across the social-media landscape – let alone invoked a bitchy comment from the world’s richest man, which saw Elon Musk mock the rebrand on X, saying: ‘Do you sell cars?’
The heated debates and passionate responses from the public, media, design pundits and marketing wonks have no doubt delighted the JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) board of executives in their offices at Gaydon, the company’s HQ.
I was one of a few automotive editors invited to see the new concept car and its various logos and creative assets a few weeks ago.
Even then, one executive was perfectly happy to say that some of them weren’t sure about it either, but everyone realised this was a now-or-never moment for this iconic British brand.
Jaguar has been losing sales hand over fist for years now. JLR retailers used to bitterly joke that Jaguar was the price you had to pay for having a Land Rover dealership.
Global sales have sunk to about 60,000. Compare that number against the multi-million car sales around the world from Jaguar’s arch competitors, BMW, Mercedes and Audi.
Jaguar just never managed to shake that cravat-wearing, cigar-smoking, golf-playing image that made younger, more adventurous customers wince.
It had a damn good try at it, employing one of the industry’s most talented designers (and nicest people), Ian Callum, to craft the beautiful F-Type sports car, the F-pace and E-Pace SUVs, and the truly brilliant I-Pace electric car, which suffered from reliability issues and battery technology that seemed to age too fast.
None of it worked though, because the brand had lost its appeal. And so here we are now, balanced at the moment of crisis.
What should Jaguar have done? Softly tweak existing designs, modernise an ageing logo, go again with glossy ads of premium cars on gravel driveways in lifestyle magazines? None of that would have shifted the dial.
Instead, they have been bold, brave and visionary, going again with a four-door GT costing six figures, aimed at a younger, more urban, wealthier group of people, and city-centre boutiques instead of industrial-estate dealerships.
And yes, Elon, the ads have no cars in them, because you don’t win over hearts with lumps of metal: you engage the public’s emotions and passions with art, with images that are desirable, beautiful, exciting, and even thrilling.
You want your customer to be intrigued, not bored.
As for the car itself, the Type 00 concept looks a bit like you would expect a sports car to look if designed by Land Rover’s chief designer, which is the case here: it is chunky, bulky and a real statement of intent. But why not? The world doesn’t need another take on the Jaguar E-Type, for goodness’ sake.
Jaguar’s prospective customers have probably never even heard of the E-Type, once the most famous sports car of them all. Instead, we have an upright grille, flared wheel arches and a bulky rear with brake lights shining through the metal slats, like bared teeth.
It’s both aggressive and beguiling at the same time. And, don’t forget, it’s just a concept: the real thing will (sadly in my opinion), be a more sober affair.
And instead of struggling to make 60,000 sales, with prices ranging from £50,000 to £100,000, all the new models will start north of £120,000 and they will aim for totally global sales of about 50,000. Smart move.
Of course, the entire range will be pure electric, with not even a plug-in hybrid on offer to soften the choice.
That may sound bonkers in a year where sales of electric cars in the UK have struggled to get above 18%of the total market, but we are inexorably headed towards electrification, with most European governments, plus the US, mandating for electrification, so Jaguar is right to future-proof itself here.
It also presents the brand with a nice clean, contemporary take on the world: it is a brand with zero tailpipe emissions, and can therefore confidently say that it doesn’t contribute to air pollution.
That’s quite nice, as well as giving it a good lead on traditional marques struggling to meet government targets, who will have to buy carbon credits off electric brands like Jaguar in order to meet regulations.
Will Jaguar win? Will the car sell, will the public want to buy, and will successive models prove as popular, or garner so many headlines?
The truth is, not even Elon Musk knows the answer to that, let alone the JLR executives. Instead, they’ve taken a punt on the old adage: “He who dares, wins”.
I very much hope the old Leaping Cat does.
Erin Baker is the Editorial Director of Auto Trader.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
Share your views in the comments below.
