Jaguar kills off its model line, with no clear plan for the future

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Just a note. Pre-production prototypes are often called 'mules' because they combine components of the old and new models. The images of the prototype testing that Jaguar has already released may or may not have older bits, such as the wing mirrors that seem to be replaced by oddly low-placed cameras in the concept car.
 

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What's the point of a long nose in an electric vehicle? Customers like it, so manufacturers try to find reasons for it. Extra storage is the common rationale. The pink car is the Jag concept. Another is Bentley's EXP 100 GT (story-sustainability...) from a few years back that suggested that you could load the frunk with modules that you might want to access on your journey and have them projected from the frunk into the cabin on demand. Another is a Renault concept from 2015, the 'Coupe Corbusier' (000-23) that extended the nose extremely to allow a lot of storage space between the doors and the wheels. Bristol (Bristol_412_S2_side_View..., not electric) actually put the spare wheel between the door and the front wheel.
 

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A bit of history. William Towns designed both of these - Lagondas for Aston Martin. One was an extended wheelbase version of an existing coupe while the other was a clean sheet design.
 

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Well I wouldn't say its jaw dropping, most concept cars tend to be outlandishly wild to some extent.
I'm trying to figure out why it has the aerodynamics of a brick. Cool Allegro steering wheel too.

Rhinocrates said:
such as the wing mirrors that seem to be replaced by oddly low-placed cameras in the concept car.
Click to expand...
If those are wing mirrors then that seems the dumbest place to put them.
 
Well, as Mike Myers would have said, Shaguar. It is more thoroughy pharked than anything I have seen for a while.
 
Looking on that leaked concept picture
I wonder how this Jaguar get in Germany a approval for roadworthiness by Technical Inspection Association (TÜV) ?
i see several points in concept car, were TIA (TÜV) say: NO WAY MAN !
 
Has pink become the new gray? A bit hard on the eyes. The images have a first year transportation design look to them. I do hope customers have a look on a large projection screen in more average colors. That way, the potential customer can say yes or no to this or that bit.
 
Certainly brutal, bold and ambitious, I don't think it quite hits the mark... the nose looks like an afterthought and the wheel/body proportions look straight off a Matchbox/Hotwheels model. And yes... nice to see the Allegros Quartic steering wheel making a comeback!

Zeb
 
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I thought BMW had a lockout on the 'shoot your brand in both feet' design language but I see Shag-You-Are buying into it too.
 
OK, here 'tis.

The Top Gear presenter says 'That thump you hear is the sound of gin and tonics hitting the carpet in the golf clubs.' Harry Metcalfe confesses to being baffled.

Jaguar itself says that on a tenth of their previous customers will follow them to this model and they're looking to attract new, younger customers. There just aren't enough people who wear cravats - they were losing money on every car they sold and being outsold four to one by Land/Range Rover. Now they're after margins instead of volume to make a profit.

The three-way discussion on Electrifying is an interesting and comes to a universal thumbs up. What I thought was one of the silliest ideas in the concept and least likely to make production actually appealed very much to two of the commenters, offering an insight into the style and priorities of their new target market. Kids these days...

Overall, despite some reservations about parts of it that may not make production anyway, it's growing on me.

https://www.carscoops.com/2024/12/r...t-previews-make-or-break-my26-electric-sedan/
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpDITvo-7BU&ab_channel=Carscoops


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGh9Lf5oVwY&ab_channel=Harry%27sgarage


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzGlTULmheI&ab_channel=TopGear

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EfC1Cff4zA&ab_channel=Electrifying
 
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Well, having just taken the plunge on an EV and spent a bit of time wandering around the various car showrooms, all I can say is - at least it doesn't look like Postman Pat's van.

Chris
 
THE CAR
MV5BNTIzNmQ1MjctNDJlZC00ODIwLTk1YWEtZjdkMzdkZWI2YzZlXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg

the woke car...
jaguar-concept-leak-front-jpg.750547
 
I wonder if you can fit two sets of golf bats in the boot? Or is that why the nose is so long?

Chris
 
They should appoint Jeremy Clarkson as the new CEO of Jaguar, to save it from bankruptcy and from itself.
 
I suspect the front end looks the way it does to save the driver from front end injury - maybe. Pink is right out.

Appeals to younger... Yes, right, of course... As we all know, "appeals to younger" is the never ending battle cry.

The "cravat wearers will never get this."
 
Never ever wore a cravat. Still would not want to be seen dead in it. I guess that means I am old.

Next!
 
An anecdote, factoid, anactoid? Anyway... An example I used with my students of design history was the Citroen AX versus the Renault Twingo (first gen in both cases). Both researched public acceptance of the 'one-box' format (three-box is engine compartment, passenger compartment, and boot), which promised great space efficiency for small cars. Both got more or less the same result: only a minority liked the one-box format.

Citroen interpreted this to mean that what the majority wants the majority will buy and made the AX a short-nosed two-box.

Renault looked more closely at the results and found that the minority REALLY liked the one-box format and followed that in designing the Twingo.

A lot of buyers looked at the AX and said, 'Yes, that's nice'... and bought Volkswagen Polos, or Nissans, or Toyotas. It was a popular second or third choice that is now largely forgotten

The Renault Twingo on the other hand is now a cult car, the model name persists. Renault's recently shown an updated electric copy which they plan to put into production soon. Copying it sort of misses the point but it highlights the impact it made the first time. Meanwhile, Citroen is trying very hard not to copy the Germans these days (nothing wrong with Germans, but it turned out that only Germans can be good at being German).

Even Citroen's problem with the AX better than what's happened to Jaguar in the last decade. The spy photos I've seen of the XJ replacement and the J-Pace show boring, constrained designs that I think would have flopped. This is no insult to Ian Callum: he's much too polite to say so, but apparently he was feeling very creatively frustrated and that's why he left to go out on his own.

Mike Pryce's link to the interview with Rory Sutherland above pinpoints the problem: Jaguar is like the Church of England - it's cosy, everyone loves it, it has a great heritage... and fewer and fewer people are going to church. Outside of England and some of its former colonies, despite name recognition, people don't know or care about Jaguar's heritage. Because Jaguar was circling the drain, they had no choice but to do what Renault did and look for new buyers - or people who would actually buy the car rather than just say they would - in Asia (not just China, huge as it is), and places like Miami, Silicon Valley, and Los Angeles.

I'm not the target market, I appreciate that. I own a Bentley... well, it's a paperweight, but it was made by Bentley!

Anyway, Jaguar didn't set out to antagonise their 'fanbase' by making the 'Worst. Episode. Ever.' but the fact that they did piss off Nigel Farage makes me smile.
 
As someone with a background in design, a few words.

You can:

Look at historical examples to help with design and marketing decisions.

OR

Like being color blind, you can decide that the past never happened and you'll do what you want.

FINALLY

Across "creative departments," the guiding philosophy is: Make sure it doesn't look like the old stuff. This occurs in places where those issuing the orders have no idea what being creative means. Or, in this case, what design is and how people perceive it.
 
The rebranding will be regarded as total success, as much controversy it caused....

Taking away the teletubbies and the pink colour, the design isn’t really far away from what could be expected. The roof line and the long front hood is retro design, the massive tank like underbody is typical contemporary design for SUVs. Square, tank like shapes and an aggressive look are regarded as masculine and that is what the marked is asking for.

Teslas cyber truck was really a completely new design, but this here could as well be sold as a new Bently or Chrysler 300. There is no reason to assume, that tie wearers (honestly, if I wear a suit, I wear it with a tie…) will stay away from this car and by any other similar tank shaped SUV instead…
 
I don't believe that the concept car meets the US legal definitions of Utility Vehicle. Not enough approach or departure angles, and it's too close to the ground to meet either ground clearance or whatever-the-term-is for the middle angles that are defined in US law.

Which means that is a CAR. not an SUV. That's going to hurt Jag in their CAFE standards.

I don't like the super high beltline relative to the roof line, but I appear to be in a minority about that, looking at the Camaro, Mustang, and Challenger. It looks like someone chopped the top a good 6-8" as they were making a custom. But I also have a long torso, so I sit like I'm 6'4".
 
It is not the colours I object to, those are easily changed if customers so desire. It is the kitsch long bonnet for an electric vehicle.
 
Arjen said:
It is not the colours I object to, those are easily changed if customers so desire. It is the kitsch long bonnet for an electric vehicle.
Click to expand...
From a functional point of view that long bonnet is indeed pointless. Maybe the car can be used as a hearse, with the coffin in the front.

A bit more seriously, some maker of an electric sports car (I forget which - Pininfarina?) decided to put the battery pack exactly where the engine would have been in a mid-engined car rather than under the floor in order to keep it as low as possible. Underfloor batter packs enable a low centre of gravity and can be consciously arranged as ballast, helping handling, but the car has to be higher and therefore with a greater frontal area, affecting drag (manufacturers keep wittering on about drag coefficients in their publicity material and avoid mentioning that they of limited meaning without frontal area being considered too). It may be then that Jaguar have put the battery pack in the nose to achieve its low silhouette while largely behind the front axle to maintain good weight distribution.

Also, with demand for EVs having plateaued (if not heading downslope), a number of manufacturers that pledged to be EV-only by 2030 have been backtracking, either postponing the deadline or deciding to build hybrids. Lotus, for instance, has announced that it will have range-extender hybrid versions of the Eletre (SUV) and Emeya (saloon) which are currently pure EVs, and pushed back the introduction of the Type 135 EV sports car by at least two years.

By accident or design then, the Jaguar GT with its long nose may be quite amenable to production as a hybrid.

A startup called Aehra is also aiming at the sport luxury market. Vaporware so far with renders and mockups and nothing to market yet but for comparison, you can see that their styling is leaning into the short nose, cab-forward mode. 'Estasi' saloon (red) and 'Impeto' SUV (blue).
 

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