Jaguar Chief: The Company Is “At a Crossroads”

Add Jaguar to the list of companies that announced they'd be going fully electric, then ran into a wall of consumer resistance.

'"It's been hugely frustrating-saying we're going all EV then 'nothing'." That's the admission from Jaguar's new managing director Rawdon Glover about the brand's current holding pattern of no new cars for five years amid a plan to go all electric… and extremely upmarket," said a story in Top Gear.

The publication says, "We'll see a glimpse of Jaguar's new design direction and 'brand world' this winter, with an angular four-door fastback expected first, before a pair of SUVs. Glover, who took up the MD gig in March 2023, says the production car will offer a range of 430 miles."

"Jaguar is at a crossroads," said Rawdon. "Then-JLR CEO Thierry Bolloré said at the time [the plan to go all-EV was announced] that Jaguar had a choice to elevate itself out of the premium space [into being a super-luxury brand] and that choice has since been validated.

"We decided on this structure in 2021, but cars don't appear overnight," Rawdon told Top Gear. "We need to take [the brand] back to when we made beautiful desirable cars, not in huge numbers and not having huge numbers [of models] in the portfolio. Until recently we were up to six or seven models."

The future is "not just some new cars, it's a complete brand reinvention," the Jag boss insists. "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 ($157,500), we don't do it."

With no new product to sell after the F-Pace disappears, he expects to lose some dealers. "We've had to do some very painful things, but this is a long term plan."