Jaguar has bet heavily this year on a global transformation of the brand. And in 2025, the British luxury car maker will have to show that it values everything.
It’s set next year to debut the first EV in its new all-electric lineup: After setting up global audiences to expect something big — this year’s Jaguar advertising controversy was the talk of the industry and beyond — now it’s got to deliver something that matches the moment its rebrand has created, industry watchers said.
A space-age concept car — presented in pink and blue — with swooping lines and curious interior features stoked some excitement for the brand, whose leaders have said it intends to go much more upmarket.
Next year, if the company meets its own schedule, we will see the result.
“I think the biggest threat to them now is making sure the production style lives up to its promises and doesn’t die from thousands of cuts,” said Greg Andersen, the agency’s chief executive. creation of Omaha, Nebraska, Bailey Lauerman, at BI. recently. “Launching an unapologetic, forward-thinking Lopass with a bigger car might not go over so well. ” Here’s how Jaguar, the favorite vehicle of the British royal family, British prime ministers and James Bond villains, got to this point:
Jag’s sales had been falling globally for years. In 2021, Jaguar first announced that it would ditch internal combustion engines and move to electric vehicles.
And in 2024, the nearly century-old Jaguar has taken the first steps to drive this transition. Jaguar Land Rover, owned by India’s Tata Motors, has announced that it will stop producing all of its existing models until the end of this year.
In their place will come the new fully electric models, the first of which the company said would be unveiled in 2025 — and are expected to go on sale to the public in 2026.
In November of this year, soon after stopping new vehicle sales in the UK, Jaguar released the controversial new vision and brand identity.
The public reaction to the debut of Jaguar’s new rebranding campaign wasn’t quite as positive as the company may have hoped.
In particular, a promotional video Jag unveiled as part of the campaign — which also included an updated typeface for Jaguar’s iconic logo, a redesigned leaping-jaguar mark, and a new creative philosophy to “copy nothing” — raised some eyebrows.
The video shows models clad in colorful, ultra-modern outfits doing things like exiting an elevator, painting a wall, and swinging a sledgehammer before they all sit down on a rock in a pink desert landscape.
Phrases like “create exuberant,” “live vivid,” and “delete ordinary,” flashed across the screen. And notably, for a car company, there were no cars in the ad.
Social media users, late-night TV hosts and some media outlets criticized Jaguar for its decision to include cars in the video, which caused a stir.
Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk chimed in and posted on X: “Do you have cars?
Stephen Colbert of “The Late Show” said on his show: “Where are the cars? Jaguar ketamine now?”
It wasn’t just the lack of cars in the initial video that got people talking. A rash of criticism cropped up online and elsewhere, with some right-leaning personalities accusing the company of abandoning its traditional history and pushing into “woke” politics.
In response to the backlash, Jaguar’s managing director Rawdon Glover told the Financial Times he was disappointed by “the level of vile hatred and intolerance” that he said the video garnered online, particularly against the models it featured. But he also said the campaign had drummed up positive buzz.
Marketing and rebranding professionals gave mixed reviews to Business Insider at the time — one called the campaign “bonkers,” and another said it was a relatively successful rollout.
All the advertising veterans agreed that the rebranding had, at the very least, sparked conversation.
A few weeks after launching its new call in early December, Jaguar unveiled a design concept for its next generation of electric vehicles, nonetheless combining the symbol of a car with its “lush modernism” rebranding campaign. .
The pastel-colored concept car, dubbed “Type 00” for its 0 exhaust emissions and prestige as a 0 car in the brand’s new lineage, featured several cutting-edge design elements, such as a glassless rear hatch, a splitter of brass glass that crosses the middle. of the cabin. Travertine stone array and plinths for floating seats.
When the concept car was released, several advertising veterans applauded it for continuing Jag’s rebrand strategy.
“This is a master class in what rebranding can accomplish for a company — a new forward-facing product and brand, clearly designed for its new customer persona, that everyone is talking about,” Jim Heininger, the founder and principal of the Chicago firm The Rebranding Experts, previously told Business Insider.
Others less convinced.
Christos Joannides, founder and artistic director of luxury logo firm Flat 6 Concepts in Los Angeles, said the concept car didn’t do enough to anchor Jaguar’s new philosophy in reality.
“By showcasing a production model with more realistic features, Jaguar could have conveyed its vision more effectively and provided tangible evidence of its direction,” Joannides said. “As it stands, the concept car feels superficial and gimmicky, like a desperate attempt to be different without any real substance or coherent strategy.”
For better or worse, Jaguar has had a great year. And the desire for the company to get through everything next year is even greater.
The first model of Jaguar’s new range, the four-door electric GT, will be revealed in late 2025, the company announced.
It said the model would use dedicated Jaguar Electric Architecture, have a projected driving range of up to 430 miles on a single charge, and be able to add up to 200 miles of range after 15 minutes of rapid charging.
But with a price tag that could near $200,000, Jaguar’s new models will really need to be incredible, EV news outlet Electrek argued.
With so much competition, it is still difficult to sell it.
“Unless Jaguar’s expectations for its upcoming range of electric cars are tempered with a dose of reality, the company plans to produce more cars than there are buyers willing to take home,” said Array analyst Sam Fiorani, vice president of Jaguar global forecast. AutoForecast Solutions told Car and Driver.
Jaguar has said updating its brand for the future is the right move.
“We have forged a fearlessly creative new character for Jaguar that is true to the DNA of the brand but future-facing, relevant, and one that really stands out,” managing director Glover said at the time the concept car was revealed.
We’ll see next year if it’s okay.
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