Jaguar set to be revived as a luxury brand under £15 billion JLR plan

Jaguar Land Rover has announced a radical acceleration of its electrification plans in an effort to guarantee the survival of its iconic brands. The Indian-owned group has earmarked £15 billion to invest in a series of measures, which include a repositioning of the Jaguar brand as a luxury marque. 

In an effort to speed up its electric plans, bosses plan to restructure the business under the JLR name. This will become a ’house of brands’ that will incorporate a new-look Jaguar and separate brands for Land Rover models. Although bosses are keen to stress that the Land Rover name isn’t set to be dropped, Defender, Discovery and Range Rover will become brands in their own right. Explaining the move, JLR’s chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern said: “We love Land Rover, but there isn’t as much equity as Range Rover. The reality is Range Rover is a brand and so is Defender. Customers say they own a Range Rover. In luxury, you need absolute clarity.”

JLR’s plans also shed some light on what the company plans to do with its ailing Jaguar brand. Having been at the forefront of electrification with the I-PACE, Jaguar has been hampered by slow sales and management turmoil. A fully electric replacement for the XJ saloon was reportedly months away from production when boss Thierry Bolloré canned the project. Bolloré subsequently resigned, throwing the company and its electrification strategy into chaos.

Electric XJ project was canned months before the planned launch

Under new plans, dubbed Project Renaissance by Gerry McGovern, Jaguar is set to revive its product line-up with three new all-electric models in the pipeline. The brand will also reposition itself as a luxury marque to rival Bentley and Rolls-Royce with no replacements for the current cheaper models planned. 

The first new model will be a four-door GT with a starting price of more than £100,000. Described by bosses as the most powerful Jaguar ever, it will come with a range of more that 400 miles. This is likely to be followed by two even more expensive models, neither of which will directly replace current cars, according to Jaguar bosses. The trio of new cars will sit on a new set of underpinnings called Jaguar Electric Architecture, and have been designed in record time. 

The project, which was overseen by McGovern, saw three teams develop the new family of electric cars. It’s understood that the design teams created 18 clay proposals in just three months, with final sign-off of all taking place shortly after their completion.

JLR is also revising plans for its Land Rover models. As part of the shake-up, the group has abandoned plans to make combustion engined variants of the brand’s Velar, Evoque and Discovery Sport models. The Discovery and Range Rover will survive the cull - largely thanks to international demand in markets where electrification has yet to be fully embraced. JLR has also made the decision to alter the design direction of its Electric Modular Architecture - a set of underpinnings that will sit beneath the next generation of smaller models. The brand had originally planned to design the platform to accommodate hybrid and electric drivetrains, but the former has now been dropped in favour of an all-electric set-up. 

No firm model plans have been revealed, but bosses have confirmed that an all-electric ‘from the Range Rover family’ will be based on the new EMA platform in 2025. A fully electric version of the current Range Rover is expected to be launched later this year, although this model is an adaption of the existing internal combustion engine car.

A full reveal of the first new model, which is expected to launch in just two years time is expected later this year. 

Next-generation Range Rover Evoque will be fully electric. The current model (pictured) only has a PHEV option