Luxury brand reveals shock EV strategy

One of the world’s most storied prestige car manufacturers has announced a radical road map for its future. But will the bold gamble pay off?

Jaguar has shocked the automotive world by announcing plans to become exclusively electric by 2025.

Most manufacturers are working toward an electric future while continuing to offer petrol and hybrid-powered machines in the short to mid-term future. But Jaguar will sidestep that trend to focus solely on electric machines.

Jaguar’s days of selling V8-powered sports cars are strictly numbered.

The brand’s next-generation XJ large luxury sedan and Jaguar F-Type sports cars were already rumoured to be electric machines with no petrol option. More popular models such as the F-Pace SUV and XE sedan will also be battery-powered if they remain on sale from 2025.

Jaguar is no stranger to electrification.

Jaguar beat luxury rivals to market with an electric luxury SUV, the I-Pace crossover, in 2018.

But the model has not proved popular, attracting just 70 sales in 2020. The brand’s current range has struggled to capture a significant share of the prestige market — it sold 1326 cars locally in 2020, far fewer than the 29,455 of Mercedes or 23,520 of BMW.

While Tesla does not share sales statistics, NSW vehicle registrations show the American brand sold about as many cars in Sydney and its surrounds as Jaguar managed nation-wide.

While the I-Pace beat rivals to market, it has struggled to secure sales.

Jaguar’s shift comes as governments around the world place increasingly strict limits on carbon emissions for carmakers.

While Australian authorities take a hands-off approach to electrification, the British government announced in 2020 that it would ban the sale of new combustion-powered cars by 2030, with hybrid models set to be phased out by 2035.

The electric push stretches across the Jaguar Land Rover group, with Land Rover set to introduce its first all-electric SUV in 2024.

Expect Land Rover to offer an electric Defender in coming years.

Land Rover aims to make electric cars 60 per cent of its sales in 2030.

JLR chief executive Thierry Bolloré says the group has “an unrivalled understanding of the future luxury needs of its customers, emotionally rich brand equity, a spirit of Britishness and unrivalled access to leading global players in technology and sustainability”.

Originally published as Luxury brand reveals shock EV strategy