Jaguar enters a colourful new era

When cars cut through to the real world I get a little fizz of ‘oh, people will talk about what WE like!’ Sometimes it’s a good thing, sometimes it’s a bad thing. This week, I’ve been asked more about Jaguar than I have been in 38 years. Not for brilliant reasons. 

Let’s roll to the start. Jaguar’s stopped making cars for a bit (or is about to - the timeline is reaching an end very, very shortly). The XE, XF, E-Pace, F-Pace, i-Pace, and F-Type are all either gone, or shortly to shuffle off the coil. The reason for that is because Jag’s been due a much mooted reinvention. We’ve been told for years that Jaguar’s going to become something different, and that time is now. Its new look and feel is part of Jaguar Land Rover’s ‘House of Brands’ set up, which gives Range Rover, Defender, Discovery, and Jaguar their own spaces to breathe. Or, at least, they will one day. 

“Jaguar’s rebrand video might have brought out the worst of the internet - but at least you’re all talking about it.”

We’ve known the first car from nuJag will be an electric GT that’ll cost over £100k, and it’s been announced that a concept of the car will be revealed in Miami at the Art Basel show on December 2nd. In the lead up to the main event, Jaguar’s released an ad showing off its new logo, and, for want of a better word, vibes. 

It’s bright, colourful, there are a smattering of slogans that mean many things, and the cast of performers are dressed androgynously. We see no car, no hint of what’s to come - that’ll be saved for December. The internet, predictably, has gone wild. 

It took less than an hour for someone to tweet at Jaguar that the ad was ‘woke,’ and many more followed suit with increasing rage. In my own feeds it was called ‘woke DEI garbage’; a video of Jaguar’s Head of Brand Strategy, Santino Pietrosanti, giving a speech at the Attitude Awards about inclusion was waved at me as the reason why it’s ‘bad’ albeit with no actual explanation; homophobic language was used openly to talk about the performers. As things to read go, much of it was pretty draining.

An advert featuring models and dancers modelling and dancing in colourful clothes has been vilified by some of the worst corners of the internet because there aren’t enough testicles in it. To appease the grumpy, Jag’s new ad should, perhaps, be the MP for Clacton (who commented that the cast were ‘almost non-human figures’ in a video of his own), knocking back a pint, taking a drag of a Silk Cut, popping on a flat cap, and slithering about the countryside in a BRG E-Type. It would mean nothing, but it would keep them quiet for a bit.

The advert clearly wasn’t for everyone

Some people simply thought it was a bit cack and didn’t like that there wasn’t a car in it. In fairness to them, an ad from a car manufacturer without a car would be a bit odd if you don’t know the timeline of when things are going to be revealed. Others are so unsure by Jag’s new direction they’re keen to share that ‘THEY’VE JUST LOST A CUSTOMER,’ while giving no evidence that they’ve ever even sniffed a Growler in their lives. 

As well as dragging some of the worst of humanity out of the woodwork, it also brought out a group of concerned Jaguar fans. For them, Jaguar’s been doing broadly the same thing since before they were born. The brand’s heritage, even post Ian Callum reinvention, has been the steadfast hook upon which Jaguar’s hat swung. Images of the E-Type (which has been out of production for nearly 50 years) are everywhere, and rightly so, the Morse (which hasn’t been on our screens for nearly 25 years) Mk II is used as a shining example of how great Jag used to be. The tales of derring do, of record breaking, of Le Mans, Geneva, and the Mille Miglia are staggering, and they hold a special place in a lot of hearts. 

Keeping things the same as they’ve always been leads to two problems. Firstly, a lot of people want to let others buy new, and then snap ‘em up in 15 years time for £1,500 - which won’t help Jag now. Far from it. In 2023 Jaguar sold 64,241 cars. To put this into perspective - over 75 million cars were sold globally in 2023. Porsche shifted in excess of 320,200, BMW’s M division flogged over 200,000, and Genesis put over 150,000 new cars in homes during the same year. Lots of people are saying they want the old Jag, but the numbers show they didn’t want to pay for it. 

The second is that if those cars aren’t exactly what ‘ol Papa Lyons used to make they’ll be an affront to everything that’s gone before (as evidenced online), which means people won’t buy them, or will complain endlessly. If your entire identity is based on past glories, doing new things becomes very difficult. Not everything can be an E-Type, no matter how hard you wish.

To see such a big change, even without a car, splashed proudly in front of them must feel  almost like a break up. The fans are losing the person they’ve spent so much time with, and are horrified to see their ex has had a REALLY good glow up. Jaguar’s loudly stating it isn’t for them any more, and that hurts. 

The brand had gotten itself into a state that would have been capital D difficult to recover from. Rather than flounder and fizzle out, it’s stuck all its money on red and is hoping that a new look, a new price point, and a solely EV powertrain will win it the big bucks. It wants money still, but not the mass 2.0-litre diesel exec saloon market money. It wants the high margin, low volume, ultra luxe dollar - it wants Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Lucid, and even a bit of Tesla’s lunch.

Change is hard, but change when almost nothing has changed for decades prior will feel awful. Incidentally, the tweet I put out canvassing opinions has been viewed nearly 120,000 times. If every one of them had bought a new Jaguar in 2023 its global sales would have tripled. They didn’t, and now there’s a very expensive EV coming. Probably surrounded by bendy dancers in bright garb. You’ll all be talking about it until December 2nd anyway.

words by Alex Goy
pictures from Jaguar.co.uk