I’m sure you’re probably sick by now of people being affronted and baffled by Jaguar’s confusing re-branding and new logo. That’s understandable. Things have been very out of the ordinary since yesterday, mostly because everyone has been talking about Jaguar, which is not something that the general population has done for quite some time. It feels a little weird, but you know what? Not so bad! After yesterday, I’m not sure I have a lot of confidence in what Jaguar is doing, but I suspect whatever it is, it won’t be boring. And these first teaser images of what seems to be their all-new EV seem to support that idea.
Say what you will about what Jaguar is doing, as I myself did, but I do think whatever Jaguar does now, it needs to be so big and crazy that everyone has to pay attention. It may fail, sure, but better to go out with a bang than a gasp and a drool, I say.
So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at this rear quarter of a car that Jaguar decided to share with us:
02 Dec 2024 Miami.
Copy nothing.#Jaguar pic.twitter.com/NtLn7j1T7Y— Jaguar (@Jaguar) November 20, 2024
Huh. That’s interesting, isn’t it. I believe we’re looking at the rear of the car, which is, notably, window-less. There’s a massive grille that looks a lot like an office’s HVAC grille, the sort of thing you’d see among the acoustical tile on a ceiling, and next to that what seems to be a rear fender.
It’s a mix of sharp angles and more flowing curves, but almost nothing here feels like what we’ve known of Jaguar’s design language before.
I wanted to make an extrapolated image of the full rear of the car from this shot, so I gave it ago, using that one image they posted and a lot of guessing:
I added that Jaguar leaper there because that grille looked a lot like the sample image of the leaper they released yesterday:
Oh man, can that be right? The proportions are so bonkers! But that’s pretty much what the teaser image is showing? Just for fun, I also made a version with less exaggerated proportions, height-wise, just to see what something lower and sportier could look like:
I think I like that better, but hat doesn’t change the fact that the actual image they showed is much, much taller. Here, I’ll show you again, this time from Jag’s Instagram feed:
View this post on Instagram
Of course, I guessed at the taillights and lower bumper areas. Just for fun, I thought maybe Jaguar would consider doing a special Heritage Edition, where they would use taillights from an old E-Type and a third brake light from a Pep Boys catalog:
Yeah, now that I like! Let’s see it in the likely never-to-exist sleeker version:
I suspect the actual car may be a bit wider than what I’ve shown here, but, really, I have no idea what they’re planning. It looks oddly brutalist and modern, strangely industrial but perhaps a bit sleek, too? Who the hell knows.
I’ll just have to wait for Art Basel to see, like everyone else. This time I need to get there earlier, because someone ate the banana I had set aside for my lunch last time I was there.
Jason, it’s the small black line on the left of the fender the tire? If I’m right, the car is going to look more like your low slung version.
You’re correct here. It’s a much squatter car than Jason has implied with the renders.
Needs more flying buttresses
Looks like a Dodge concept car from the early 2000s. They couldn’t have done this rebrand worse if they tried.
As someone who’s seen the full size car a year ago, clay models 2 years ago, and know the new direction Jaguar is heading, it’s amusing to see everyone’s reaction, even within JLR. Shock tactic is a thing, you know. 😉
Fun fact: about 1.5 years ago everyone here in the Gaydon office got a new desktop wallpaper with just the outline of this *exact* rear image, but ’embossed’ over a brightly coloured striped wallpaper so few caught on that it was the new Jag. Loads of people complained that the bright stripes were painful on the eyes so it only lasted a single day before reverting back. Fun times!
Do tell!
Is that new direction towards the bankruptcy courts?
Because after that horrible woke launch and stupid looking Jaguar lettering/logotype, it seems that’s where they’re headed.
Cylons are coming? Didn’t see that one coming from jag.
All I see is a futuristic Chrysler Crossfire.
/s
Ah yes. Replacing the leaping cat with the squatting dog
This hits so hard at marketingspeak nonsense that I feel like they are just H&M at this point in their advertising.
The dashboards will be full of the same nonsensical script as their clothing. Seriously, you ever read what it says on some of their shirts?
I was recently at the Porsche museum, and they had this fantastic display about the evolution of their logo, and the care and attention to detail they took to make the current one. This feels like the opposite of that, but I guess we will have to see the actual car to see what they are going for, because so far it just feels like a design student’s senior project.
I can’t stop laughing.
The crossfire is back…
I’m getting 1980 Nagel print vibes
I don’t have to like it but I get what they are trying to do. Jag was losing money, so anything from break even on up would be an improvement. LR is the money making brand, they have the ability to play with Jaguar any way they want. So they chose to throw out all that was old and losing. Wipe the slate clean and start over.
What they are doing is not unlike a new brand in the market might try. Everyhting about it is a brand new approach, albeit keeping the old name. They are only aiming to sell 50,000 cars per year, so they don’t need all of the prior to customers to be onboard. They are going for a whole new customer base. Fashion driven, influencers, all that. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some gifted to some brand ambassadors from that world.
Will it work. We’ll see.
50k cars a year doesn’t sound like much if you’re talking about Toyota or something, but it is a LOT for a hastily rebranded company selling a luxury EV with what’s likely to be very polarizing design for well over $100k. They have the steepest of uphill battles.
Fewer things fill get me in rage mode faster than a product manager who says something like “We only need to capture X% of the market” or “We only need to move Y units.” It’s somewhat akin to declaring “We’ve decided to have more selective appeal in the fashion-forward marketplace.” It doesn’t mean anything, and it certainly doesn’t mean you can actually hit that target. It’s hand-waving, like “We’ve set our own goals so low we can’t miss!” when, in reality, you most definitely can.
If you want to wipe the slate clean, it’s best to start a new brand. If you repurpose an old brand (as opposed to evolving it), you’ve now got more headwinds – all the former brand loyalists who might otherwise be inclined to at least give it a glance will now bemoan its passing, and any net-new customers are going to be asking “What the hell is this?”
And 50,000 cars is, frankly, actually a lot. Not in terms of Corollas, but the most recent and notable example – the short-lived “Wagoneer” sub-brand – sold fewer than 40k cars last year.
Jaguar has a rich and storied history. People are willing to pay for novelty (Rivian) or for nostalgia (Bronco), but relaunching a brand, with a high price point, that is neither novel (EV’s are not really new anymore) nor nostalgic seems like a recipe for failure. Then again, I’m not Jaguar’s marketing team, but yet again-again, their marketing team seems kinda dense.
I’m pretty sure this is an Auto Union race car from a parallel reality that leaked through to ours.
It continues with the Grace Jones vibes.
At this point, not sure if joking about Art Basel reveal or not.
The more I think about it, this is either brilliant or as lazily derivative as the video from the other day. They need to update but not completely lose their identity. Again, the arching roofline is very Jag in the E- and F-Type tradition. The rear fender suggests the signature Jag haunches, but creased and folded, because we’re edgy now. The grille? Still no idea.
Ignoring all of the hate going on and looking at this objectively, I think this is a neo interpretation of the original Jaguar Mark saloons with rear pontoon-esque fenders. This could be quite sinister in vibe if they can pull it off like in belongs as the antagonist’s whip in a dystopian world a la Blade Runner. Those two lines at the bottom of where the back windscreen would be are likely the CHMSL.
Honestly, for them to try and revive the brand and move up market that’s likely there best shot at it – angular, but very sinister.
I’m not even sure why people are getting bent out of shape by the new logo and campaign. The brand is dying, they have to do something because the old image isn’t working anymore.
Go big or go home? Seems like that’s what they did, crazy over the top get everyone’s attention. Build one last goofy ass looking car and hope it catches on? Stranger things have happened, get the right people to buy them and suddenly it’s cool again.
It looks like an air conditioner from Temu.
Don’t say shit like that: pretty sure my heart skipped several beats.
-HVAC tech
I did not like the branding video but this teaser image is so weird it actually has me interested i what it might be
The roofline kind of feels like an homage to the past, and maybe the grille is supposed to be a cage for the big cat. That’s all I got.
New Jag, who dis?
Oh so it IS techbros desperately trying to court relevance.
Lol. Lmao, even.
That rear grille is giving me more wall mounted return register than acoustic ceiling tile supply diffuser. Either way, not an industry that Jaguar should be cribbing design elements from.
I think we all probably have the same hunch, none of this matters a whole lot, and Jaguar is just desperately trying to hold our attention while they sell literally nothing. So far, at least for people like us, it’s working? Much to our dismay? Not sure how they’re going to sell cars to people who actually buy this stuff though.