Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bolloré has shed further light on his plans to reinvent Jaguar as a luxury car brand.
Bolloré’s ‘Reimagine’ strategy has already unveiled plans to reposition Jaguar and make it fully electric with an entirely new product range arriving from 2025.
The new Jaguar family is likely to consist of three entirely new models, expected to be a pair of crossovers and a two-door sports car. Bolloré confirmed that with the design of the new family signed off, work on finding a suitable electric car platform is underway.
Bolloré, along with JLR’s Creative Director Gerry McGovern, has a clear vision of what luxury means for the new Jaguar. “We say modern luxury, in terms of refinement, in terms of modernity, in terms of engineering, in terms of technology,” he states.
“Gerry has created an amazing contest within the company with all the designers,” Bolloré added. “He gave the same instruction to three different groups, with their own inspiration. And they were totally free to reinvent absolutely from scratch what the future Jaguar could be.”
There needs to be a transition between current and future models, with Bolloré revealing that the only car likely to overlap is the fully electric I-Pace, the car he currently drives. While the platform for the new models is likely to be different from that of the I-Pace, that car is being used to develop technology for the new Jaguars.
Speaking of overlap, Bolloré also hinted at a shift in the positioning of some Land Rover models. “Today we have some overlaps with existing cars, even within Land Rover,” he said. “We want this distinction to happen very clearly.
“Some of our cars are on the same platforms today. Sometimes they are similar in proportion. They are similar in the way they resemble SUVs. There are many similarities we want to avoid.
“The goal is really to harvest the positioning of Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery. We have not reached much of our potential, especially with Range Rover and Defender in terms of pricing power. The beauty of that business model is that we can raise prices and still enjoy a scale that is very significant compared to other luxury brands.”
However, Bolloré is confident that Range Rover and Jaguar are brands that can coexist. “Jaguar’s positioning should be very different but similar in positioning: it is modern luxury but at the same time capable of attracting enough customers to have significant volume as well.”
This means that Jaguar will produce larger cars, not smaller ones. “I think our customers, if they choose Land Rover, want large cars. What we can hear is, ‘We want space’ and we want it to match the needs of our customers. It’s not because it’s luxurious or not luxurious, but what they want is significant space.”
Despite the work ahead, Bolloré is confident he will achieve his 2025 target for the new Jaguar, with his team working 40 percent faster than when developing previous models. But will we get a glimpse of what’s to come before then? “It could be,” he hints with a smile. “It’s one of the options, but it’s not decided yet.”
