The death of Jaguar
If I asked you what were the TOTAL sales of Jaguar cars across all European markets in April I wonder what you might think it was?
4900?
490?
No. 49. Yes, 49!
12 months ago, Jaguar sold 2000 cars in the same month.
Jaguar’s European sales have been declining in recent years, with 23,923 cars sold in 2022, a significant drop from 76,695 in 2019. The brand is clearly dying, so what do?
Well, Jaguar decided to halt all new car production this year and transition to an all-electric lineup, ending ICE models like XE, XF, and F-Type by June 2024. This left Jaguar dealers with no new stock, causing a 97.5% sales drop in Europe.
The ‘pause’ supports retooling for electric models, with a 4-door GT expected in late 2025. JLR's £15B investment backs this shift as a further example of commercial suicide.
Jaguar wants to target wealthier buyers, accepting an up to 85% customer loss as part of this strategy. They are banking on a small number of wealthy people who want to drive flash EV’s and in doing so abandoning a customer base first established in 1935.
This is not an audacious strategy- it’s an insane one.
By going all electric, Jaguar is locking out all drivers who like their cars but want an ICE model. I remember driving a petrol Jaguar XF about 15 years ago and it was a nice vehicle. I was looking at the stats for EV new car sales to private individuals and it equates to roughly 4.8% of new car sales. Most EV car sales are to company fleets, around 70%. Jaguar will be locked out of that market by virtue of price.
The way I see it, this change of direction by Jaguar is commercial self harm and I will be very surprised if the brand is still alive in 5 years. The big cat will be put down.
*** If you enjoy my work here, can I ask you to consider becoming a PAID subscriber, it’s only £5 a month, you can cancel if you don’t enjoy it but I know you will. I want to thank the kind people who already do this, without your help this becomes impossible. Thank you in anticipation of your support***
I read a book about how Jaguar was saved from Ford, it was purchased by TATA the Indian Truck maker, when it was going downhill because Ford wanted Jaguar to produce poor quality high quantity cars. TATA came in and told the engineers to design a Jaguar they would be proud of, they did and Jaguar went on to years of great things and the F Type was a superb aspirational car.
Did TATA go woke?
And that ridiculous advert.