Some car companies have a romance to them that others don’t. One way to know the difference is nicknames. No matter how many great cars Genesis builds, you may never hear a friend say they hope to buy a “Gennie” someday. But a Jag? You know someone who wants a Jag.
We have tough news, though, if you are the friend that wants a Jag.
The company thinks its future lies in selling fewer cars for higher prices, reports trade publication Automotive News.
“There are 20 million millionaires in the U.S. alone,” JLR CEO Adrian Mardell told investors last month. “So, a lower volume, higher price positioning is absolutely the right position for Jaguar today.”
JLR? We should explain.
The company behind Jaguar and Land Rover has embarked on a major makeover. It renamed itself JLR in April, and announced plans to spin off some of its iconic Land Rover SUVs into brands of their own. The effort could lead to separate Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery showrooms.
It’s been less clear what it means for the iconic Jaguar brand. But Automotive News reports that the company plans to overhaul Jaguar “by reducing its model range and pushing the brand higher upmarket to compete with Bentley and Porsche instead of Mercedes-Benz and BMW.”
That could mean the end of models like the E-PACE (with its $49,500 entry price) and the XF ($49,800). In their place, AN says, the “first model of Jaguar’s new era” will be “a full-electric four-door GT. The GT will be the first of three all-new electric Jaguars. It will be unveiled this year and will go on sale next year, starting at 100,000 pounds ($129,000) in the U.K.”
Currently, Jaguar offers just one electric vehicle: The i-Pace SUV that starts at $72,000.
