Opinion: Will Jaguar’s concept car catch on?

The London Blue color of one of the two examples is also inspired by the E-Type, drawing on the brand’s Opalescent Silver paint of the 1960s. The hues of aging brass and South Florida’s Art Deco architecture inspired the other car’s color, Miami Pink. A four-door grand touring vehicle influenced by Type 00 will be the first new Jaguar unveiled under the new branding scheme. Jaguar will reveal that model in late 2025.

Credit: Source: Jaguar

Credit: Source: Jaguar

If its new competitors are any benchmark, Jaguar’s success in its hyper-luxury rebranding endeavor will depend on whether its target audience accepts the Type 00 aesthetic and the new production vehicle as a valid self-expression — or at least a valid expression of a quarter-million dollars or more of wealth.

‘And,’ not ‘or’

Not content to battle it out in the luxury mainstream with intense competition from BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar is moving up to play against the halo brands of those same parent companies: Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Mercedes-Maybach.

Credit: SPECIAL

Credit: SPECIAL

Jaguar demonstrates a shift from the “or” space to the “and” space. What is the “and” space? People at Jaguar’s stratospheric new price point don’t choose between a Rolls-Royce Cullinan or a Bentley Mulsanne as people choose between an Audi A4 or a BMW 3 Series. They own both, often in multiple shades to match their outfits better or to keep at their other homes.

The Jaguar-Land Rover group already has direct experience with this market through its Range Rover SUV’s $250,000-plus top-spec versions. So, perhaps extending Jaguar’s reach into that realm isn’t such a stretch.

The underlying reason for Jaguar’s move out of the “or” space could be its weakened sales figures and market share over the past five years.

Jaguar’s sales hit an all-time high in 2019, but starting in 2020, the company lost ground. In 2023, Jaguar’s total sales were 60% off its peak. Jaguar saw sales rebound last year, but it was still 20% lower than 2019.

The editorial desk’s take

At Kelley Blue Book, we have mixed opinions about Jaguar’s likelihood of success in its new mission.

Kelley Blue Book video host and senior editor Lyn Woodward says, “I believe they rolled out too soon with a concept that looks more cartoon than car. … They should have waited until they had something more fully baked. I am ever hopeful for them, but I can no more say now if I think they’ll be a success than before they went public with this latest campaign.”

Lead news editor Sean Tucker thought “the initial branding exercise was a failure mostly because it was so derivative.”

The ‘Zoolander’ movies lampooned this artistic approach in 2001,” Tucker said, referencing the release of the first Ben Stiller film. “That’s how dated this aesthetic is. … I thought the car itself was more interesting but also a little derivative. Cadillac already gave us an Art-Deco-inspired $300,000 electric car, the Celestiq, which debuted in 2023.”

Credit: Source: Jaguar

Credit: Source: Jaguar

Managing editor Jason Fogelson lamented, “Perhaps I’m old-fashioned, but I can sum up my reaction to the Jaguar rebranding in one word: ‘Sad.’ This latest rebranding tosses aside heritage in favor of perfume-ad slogans, ugly typography and concept cars that the company will never build. It reeks of desperation, not celebration.”

Senior staff editor Brian Moody is more optimistic. “It’s been my experience that successful things come from spectacular products and services — branding comes after the brilliant and game-changing products have made their mark. … Cars — stunning, gut-grabbing cars — have a visceral impact on the buyer. If Jaguar does that while truly delivering something that is like nothing else, it will all have been worth the criticism from armchair quarterbacks.”

Much of the Kelley Blue Book editorial staff lands in a pragmatic zone between optimism and pessimism. As Tucker put it, “Key to understanding this whole effort is that Jaguar wants to emerge as a far more expensive and exclusive brand. It’s the nature of exclusive things to exclude. If most people don’t like this, that could be a sign that it’s working. They need a smaller, more well-heeled audience and probably don’t mind turning off people who don’t buy quarter-million-dollar cars.”

The luxury paradox

At the same time, the cachet of the Bentley, Mercedes-Maybach and Rolls-Royce brands comes from the marriage of mainstream desirability and the experiences the vehicles provide with the owner’s knowledge that the masses will never share those experiences. Envy, as much as exclusivity, is part of the brand.

Jaguar is embracing oligarchy just as the U.S. flirts with the concept. Hyper-luxury may be a real growth market. Whether Jaguar can take advantage of that and leverage itself to the next level of the automotive industry is a question that will make or break the nearly 90-year-old brand.

Will Jaguar’s Type 00 concept catch on? It may not need to, or at least it may not need to go viral. It may be best for the brand’s success if it remains a rare sighting reserved for the rich, tantalizing the enthusiasts. A connoisseur’s car. To successfully transition the classic sport-luxury marque into the world of hyper-luxury vehicles, it needs only to win the hearts of the wealthy, perhaps fewer than 10,000 people per year worldwide.

Senior editor Russ Heaps wraps it up. “I suspect that Jaguar couldn’t care less what the 95% of us who can’t afford its rebranded EVs think, which is confirmed by the extremely narrow appeal of its rather bizarre initial marketing effort. Do I get it? Nope, and apparently, I’m not supposed to.”

Nelson Ireson is an automotive writer with Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader focused on cutting through the noise to deliver helpful, actionable information to today’s car buyers.

The Steering Column is a weekly consumer auto column from Cox Automotive. Cox Automotive and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution are owned by parent company, Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises.