What's next for Jaguar? | Thank Frankel it's Friday

From June the XE and XF saloons will cease production though few may notice, but so too will the F-type, a car that may not be remembered as fondly as its alphabetically one step removed ancestor, but was a fine example of what a modern British sportscar should be. That leaves just the eminently forgettable E-Pace, the excellent but aged F-Pace and the I-Pace, once the world’s best electric vehicle.

To be honest, all three of the soon to be deceased are probably some distance past their use by date, but it does beg the question of what future remains for this once most exciting of British brands.

I was there that day in 1988 when Jaguar returned to the top step of Le Mans after 31 years away; the very next day and nursing a considerable hangover, I became a motoring journalist. I was there when the wraps were pulled off the original XJ220 concept car with its quad cam V12 motor and all-wheel drive system; I was there when the company was sold to Ford and when Jaguar inexplicably decided to take legal action against its own customers for trying to reverse their way out of their commitment to buying a much changed production XJ220.

I went on development drives in far flung places of the car that became the XK8, goggled in disbelief that it thought the X- and S-types might actually do some damage to BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. Then I goggled some more when it produced the world’s first car with an aluminium monocoque – arguably the most advanced car in the world at the time – yet gave it such traditional, dull styling that was only likely to appeal to pensioners. Jaguar-wise, and for half a lifetime, I have seen it all.

And yet despite having dinner with some of the people now in charge at the company, I still have little idea of what comes next. Or at least not much that I can report. Even so I can still share a little of what I understand to be the case, based on both on the record and unattributable conversations from people in a position to know.

First of all, those aforementioned models now heading for the scaffold will swing to make way for a new generation of Jaguars. Yet none of them is either the full sized ‘J-Pace’ SUV nor the XJ replacement, despite the fact both those cars were fully developed. For good or for ill, those cars have been scrapped with zero chance of resurrection, without ever having been seen in public.

In their place will come two new electric cars, the first being a sporting GT likely to land in category and positioning somewhere between the Porsche Taycan and Bentley Continental GT and which we will at least see next year. Then, and with the same inevitability with which night follows day, there will be a full sized SUV. In time others will come along to fill the gaps between the two.

But how will Jaguar, which last launched a new car six years ago and has not exactly been dominating the sales charts of late, re-invent itself as an EV constructor while moving its entire proposition from the premium to the luxury sector, a position it has never held to date?

It will not be easy. Indeed when I look back I can’t offhand think of an example of it having been done successfully before. But of course that is not to say it cannot be achieved now. The strategy, as I understand it, will be to produce designs so startling and beautiful it will charm the money out of our wallets.

And here Jaguar has previous: it did it in 1948 with the XK120 and it did it again in 1961 with the E-type. But it is that level of jaw-on-floor design that is going to be required again now. And let’s not forget that neither the XK nor the E was exactly short of other attributes too: they were astonishingly affordable compared to the opposition and among the fastest cars in the world at the time of their introduction. So there was real substance behind the shiny styling too.

Which there’ll need to be again. I hear rumours of the GT offering 1000bhp for £120,000 which should definitely get people’s attention. Jaguar has one shot and one shot only at this: but if it can redraw people’s expectations of what an upmarket EV can be both to look at and drive, I think there is all to play for. It’s a mighty task no doubt, but right now the company seems up for it.