After some preamble...
Car Magazine summed him up thus: “Jag man was typically in his late-40s and a bit of a lady-killer in his time. A little dodgy in his younger days, he’d subsequently gone legit and prospered. A self-made man made good, if not really the sort of bloke you’d really want to mess with.”
Now, the British marque is hoping to lure a fresh generation of Jag men with a new statement car. A four-door grand tourer (GT), scheduled to be unveiled later this year, will be the first in a new all-electric family of vehicles aimed at wealthier customers than its current range. It will sell for upwards of £100,000, boast a 700-kilometre (430-mile) range and can be almost fully charged in around 15 minutes, according to insiders.
As part of the planned land grab, Jaguar is set to ditch the more cautious, iterative approach to design it has taken in recent decades in favour of the bolder, more thrusting style. Bosses hope the new GT will provoke the same response from passers-by as the E-type and other iconic models, such as Mark 2 driven by Inspector Morse or Steve McQueen’s XKSS “green rat”.
“If you think about the reaction the world gave the E-type back in 1961, people hadn’t seen a car like that before,” says Glover. “That’s the bar that we set ourselves. “Our new range of vehicles needs to have a similar sort of level of jaw-dropping impact, so when people see them they actually go, ‘wow, that is like nothing else’. “In doing that, I suspect those designs might polarise people – but we’d prefer to be loved by a distinct group of people, rather than liked by lots of people. And the designs really are bold in that sense.” Adrian Mardell, chief executive of parent company Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), describes the new car as “drop-dead gorgeous”.
According to Glover, the resultant car – which will begin British road tests under camouflage in the coming weeks and months – is a repudiation of the largely homogenous designs prevalent among most electric vehicles (EVs) today. He remains tight-lipped on the details but says the car will have a long bonnet and an interior “akin to luxury furniture” with “the feel of a boat”. Computer screens will have only a minimal presence. “Our vehicles are really all about exuberant proportions. They’re all about having really, really impactful designs that are going to stand out from the rest of the vehicles on the road.”
Compared to the current top end of its range, particularly after recent levels of inflation, £100,000 won’t be too much of a leap for Jaguar’s existing customers. But “to get people to that emotional £100,000 price point, you need a bit of a halo”, the analyst adds. “Mercedes has the EQS [saloon] and [performance brand] AMG – you need that sort of GT range that goes up to £200,000. “There has to be a feeling that the customer can work their way up and they are part of an exclusive club”.
The average selling price of a Jag today is £45,000-£50,000. To raise that average “we have to change things”, Glover admits. “We’ll be completely changing how we position the brand, what the look and feel is – it will be a lot more exuberant than we are today.” He says the modern Jaguar brand will be “exuberant”, “modern” and “fearless”. “This will be the most powerful Jaguar we’ve ever produced,” he adds. “And the electric powertrain gives you a completely different proposition in terms of the ride, the comfort, the quietness. “We’re confident we’ve got the right proposition.”
