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Jaguar's next turnaround plan outlines a major shift to upmarket luxury

Jaguar wants to reinvent itself again, this time as a purveyor of EVs that competes in the luxury space dominated by Bentley. It outlined a turnaround plan written to help it move upmarket while launching a new range of models. Company boss Thierry Bollore, a French industry veteran who briefly ran Renault in the late 2010s, told British magazine Auto Express he wants Jaguar to represent what he described as "modern luxury." He added his vision of modern luxury is "extremely reductive" in terms of refinement, modernity, engineering, and technologies. Jaguar said it will go EV-only, yet it scrapped the next-generation XJ at the 11th hour in 2021 because the sedan didn't fit its image of a re-imagined brand. Making Jaguar synonymous with "modern luxury" requires starting from scratch. "The situation at Jaguar was really a concern from outside," said Bollore after revealing Renault looked at purchasing Jaguar-Land Rover in the late 2010s, "and more than a concern from inside, because the brand has been damaged to a certain extent." That's why the turnaround plan calls for a blank slate to rebuild Jaguar on. Design work for an entirely new range of Jaguar models has been completed, the executive affirmed, and Auto Express speculates the portfolio will initially consist of three models: a two-door sports car (likely a follow-up to the F-Type) and a pair of crossovers. Note that there's no sedan on the horizon. These three cars will ride on the same modular architecture, though it's too early to tell if it will be developed in-house or shared with another carmaker. They'll wear a new design language that was forged by holding an internal contest three teams participated in. Competing with Bentley, among other carmakers, will require convincing customers to pay six-digit sums. "Luxury starts not far from GBP100,000," said Bollore, a figure which represents about $140,000 at the current conversion rate. As of writing, none of Jaguar's models start above $100,000, though some cross that threshold once options are piled on. Its cheapest model, the E-Pace, starts at $39,950. Its most expensive is the electric I-Pace at $69,850. No one would pay $140,000 for an E-Pace, even if it's electric and brimming with tech, so Jaguar's upcoming models will all be relatively large. That doesn't mean Bollore will put a leaping cat emblem on a Land Rover Range Rover and call it a good job well done. He wants to ensure the two sister brands coexist without overlapping.

Jaguar's Callum refutes two XJ bodystyle rumor

Not long ago, we relayed word from Edmunds that Jaguar was planning to split its next-generation XJ sedan into two bodystyles - one model that continued the ambitious design approach fostered with the current X351-based model, and another, more upright model to better appeal to China's conservative design sensibilities.
We expressed some cynicism in the idea, noting that such a strategy "might catch more profits for the marque, but it might also represent a setback to design head Ian Callum's vision for a thoroughly modern Jaguar portfolio." Callum has been quite insistent in his belief that Jag needs to be a forward-thinking brand in terms of design, and the two-model strategy seemed to conflict with that idea. We tried to get some comment from Callum at that time, but were unable to reach him.
As it turns out, our cynicism was well-placed. Autocar says that while the next XJ will continue to have two wheelbases, Callum has denied the two-model talk, saying flatly: "I can't see us doing two bodystyles. The cost would be enormous and the message inconsistent. You have to believe in what you produce and to do two bodystyles would undermine that."

2021 Jaguar F-Pace hides big interior and powertrain changes under familiar sheetmetal

Jaguar's first-ever crossover is getting a major update. The 2021 Jaguar F-Pace, while looking not much different on the outside, is hiding an all-new interior as well as new engines. The changes to the exterior are quite mild, rather like those of the F-Type. Headlights and taillights are more slender, with the tails losing their little rounded sections altogether. The grille and diffuser areas of the bumpers have been slightly changed, and the main grille gets different inserts on all trims. The fender vents now get the "Leaper," the cat logo, embedded in them. Under the hood are two types of engines. There's the familiar turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder at the base of the range with 246 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque. Above that are two versions of the new inline-six-cylinder engine, both of which use a regular turbocharger and an electric supercharger. The less-potent version makes 335 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque, while the high-output version makes 395 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. Each engine also gets a belt-driven starter-generator powered by the same 48-volt electrical system that drives the electric supercharger. All engines are coupled to an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission and rear-biased all-wheel-drive system. The interior gets the most immediately noticeable changes. The curvy, rounded dash of the outgoing model is replaced with a more crisp design with better-integrated air vents and large sections of contrasting leather and other accents such as metal or wood trim. An available 11.4-inch infotainment screen dominates the center stack, and it runs the new Pivi Pro infotainment system launched on the Land Rover Defender and the Jaguar I-Pace. This infotainment system can support pairing two phones at once and can receive over-the-air updates. The instrument cluster is available as a 12.3-inch screen that can be configured to show an array of different information including navigation info. The old shifter dial is replaced with a small leather and metal shift lever. Jaguar is also including more features as standard in the F-Pace. Among them are heated seats, a Meridian sound system, keyless entry, blind-spot monitoring and a surround-view camera. Active noise cancellation is also standard and a first on a Jaguar. Pricing and the on-sale date for the new F-Pace have not yet been announced. Related Video: