In this regular column, CarGurus’ motoring expert and commentator Vicky Parrott has her say on the burning issues in the automotive world. This week, it could only be Jaguar…
I went to see Madonna at the O2, last year. For her Celebration Tour, she worked through hits from over forty years as one of the world’s most famous solo artists.
To be honest, the songs themselves were secondary to the extraordinary theatricality and choreography of the show, which sort of sums up Madonna quite nicely, I reckon. Madonna is a brand in her own right, and she’s been clever enough to drastically re-brand herself every decade or so. There might be a lot of eye-rolling and unpleasantness from the media when she does it, but her fans love her regardless, and I think we can all agree that she’s had a successful career - not least thanks to her willingness to emerge as a totally new Madonna whenever she feels like it.
Anyway. Jaguar revealed its new branding in recent days... You know where this is going, don’t you? The outpouring of cynicism has been remarkable. I don't think I'm alone in thinking that social media platforms can act as an echo chamber for unpleasantness, but Jaguar is being judged very harshly before it’s even actually revealed its forthcoming luxury electric car.
I'll admit that I find the capital ‘G’ in JaGuar quite annoying. But I do rather like the rounded symmetry of the font, and the simple modernity it implies. I also like the ‘jr’ roundel, and the leaper with its raised grille background. It’s all very smart and minimalist.
I’m less a fan of the ad, which to me at least oozes meaningless, infuriating pretentiousness as overtly as any perfume ad. Hey ho – I realise I’m not the intended audience, and Jaguar needs to do something drastic.
The brand has (foolishly, in my opinion) not launched any new models for some five years, with repeated promises that it would reinvent itself as an electric-only brand. Well, here we are – finally witnessing this reinvention – and I can’t help but be reminded of when Ian Callum revealed his all-new Jaguar XJ in 2010. For years before that, the car-buying populace and motoring media had been telling Jaguar that it needed to modernise. That the people who still wanted Jag’s traditionalist styling were growing old and wouldn’t support the brand much longer. When Jaguar did just that, the same collective promptly reported that they didn’t like modernity, after all, and that they preferred the old designs.
To be fair, the smaller XF and XE saloons that followed, and the fabulous F-Type, saw modest success, and I still believe that the Jaguar I-Pace is one of the best electric cars of the modern EV era. That Jaguar didn’t capitalise on the I-Pace’s general brilliance with successive electric models is, I suspect, one of the greatest mistakes that it’s ever made.
But here we are: this is a brand that’s got the sort of heritage and global awareness that many new Chinese car firms would give a decade’s R and D budget to lay claim to. Yet that same British brand has been adrift for years now. It sold less than 65,000 cars globally in 2023. BYD, as an extreme contrast for you, sold more than 3 million.
Another interesting figure is that of BMW’s global sales last year, which reached 2.25m (an all-time high for the brand), despite it being routinely slammed in recent years for its brash design. New products, controversially styled or not, have driven results.
So, I’m not going to declare that Jaguar’s new re-branding is too much, or that it will alienate those people who still love Jaguar. I’m just grateful that Jaguar is doing something – anything – to show the world that it hasn’t been put in a drawer and forgotten about altogether.
I haven’t seen the new car yet, although I’m confident that it’ll be just as divisive (if not more so) than the branding. If anything, my concern is that Jaguar should be revealing a range of cars rather than just one.
Regardless, divisive may be exactly what Jaguar needs, now. After all, this new era of electric Jaguars was always going to feel weird and alien compared with the old Jaguar that we know and love, so it’s wise to be bold for this next reinvention.
And imagine what Jaguar could do if its loyal fans chose to love it, regardless. It doesn’t even need those loyalists to go and buy its cars. It just might help if they didn’t simply poor scorn all over it on social media.
Jaguar can no longer live in the past. It tried that, and it wasn't nearly enough. Now, finally, it’s going full Madonna. The haters will inevitably hate, but whatever form the new-age Jaguar manifests as, I wish it well.