New Jaguar GT due soon as first of a three-car luxury line-up

The reinvention of Jaguar as a luxury brand is just around the corner, with managing director Rawdon Glover confirming the new, design-led brand will launch three cars over the next three years – each with an average transaction price of £120,000.

The maker ishoping to reveal its first model – a four-door saloon – before the end of the year, ahead of customer cars arriving towards the end of 2025, possibly early 2026. Following this, we’ll see a Bentley Continental-rivalling coupé and a large SUV. Glover confirmed the brand will not chase volume, “you’ll want a Jaguar, not need one,” he said.

Our exclusive image gives an idea of what we can expect the saloon to look like, based on a teaser image issued by the manufacturer in 2023. The striking rear shot shows how the saloon is likely to purposefully transition away from the design direction seen on the brand’s current line-up of cars, with a wide stance featuring distinct squared-off angles. 

From clues published by Jaguar in that sole teaser image of the new car, our artist's impressions show how these design elements could combine with solid surfacing and advanced aerodynamic treatment – including a prominent diffuser to help boost range. Expect this look to be enhanced by razor-thin tail-lights. 

As CEO Adrian Mardell previously explained in an interview with Auto Express, there is a very clear desire to take Jaguar in a new direction with a fresh visual identity that expresses the emotion of the brand.

To that effect, Jaguar’s team of designers produced a host of different options for consideration by a number of key stakeholders. What we see here is the first interpretation of a new design language that was virtually the unanimous choice of everyone involved, and is described by Mardell as “jaw dropping”. Glover told us the “design inside and out will make you want to buy a Jaguar”. 

The rapid-fire process was instigated by JLR’s chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern. Called Project Renaissance, it handed three teams within JLR’s design studio in Gaydon a common brief to produce a family of three distinct types of vehicles, resulting in 18 clay-model proposals being made in barely three months.

It’s understood that Jaguar’s plan for three new models has changed tack somewhat. The business had previously hinted at a sleek saloon, followed by two SUVs. The maker’s is now understood to have swapped one of those SUVs for a big, two-door, four-seat GT – similar in positioning to Bentley’s Continental GT. There will be a common design language shared among the three new Jaguars, with Mardell previously insisting it’s “really important that there’s an association – a family look”.

The British marque is being fully rebooted as part of JLR’s Reimagine strategy, with no replacements planned for any of the existing models. Instead, Jaguar is being moved upmarket to stand alongside Range Rover, Defender and Discovery as one of four ‘brand pillars’ of JLR. Indeed, Jaguar will be hoping to replicate some of the success of the latest Defender, which sells three times as many models as the old one did, each for around twice the price.

The new three-car line-up will be made at Solihull – the same plant that will also build the all-electric Range Rover – with the GT set to be the most powerful Jaguar production car ever made, and trumping the brand’s existing electric car, the I-Pace, on both range and charging capacity.

Jaguar has not released motor outputs or performance figures, but it says the new model will have up to 700km (435 miles) of range, and will be capable of adding around 200 miles of range in 15 minutes of rapid charging. Glover told us that Jaguar will offer owners a charge card that’ll include access to the Tesla Supercharger network.

McGovern said: “Jaguar’s founder Sir William Lyons said that it would be a copy of nothing, and that’s what we’re working towards. The brand has to inspire like no other – think exuberance, aspirational, fearless. This is absolutely the right way forward for this business, and I’ve more enthusiasm for it now than I’ve ever had. It’s a real opportunity – big stuff.”

All of the new creations will sit on a bespoke-EV platform called Jaguar Electrified Architecture (JEA). Nick Collins, JLR’s executive director of vehicle programmes, said: “JEA is being developed specifically for the exuberant Jaguar brand. There’s not a single vehicle architecture anywhere in the world that could create something as exuberant as what Gerry and the team have created.”

As part of JLR’s reorganisation, Jaguars will only be sold alongside Range Rover, Defender and Discovery at selected retailers, although the brand could also be positioned at standalone boutique sales points – a tactic that’s already being employed for the luxury SUV brand.

The first model’s named price point is around £90,000, and JLR’s chief commercial officer Lennard Hoornik confirmed to Auto Express that this will be the entry point for the brand. “It’s definitely a ‘prices from’ situation,” he said. Hoornik added that the second and third models in the new range would arrive in reasonably short order after 2025.

JLR’s overall ambition for Jaguar is to move it upmarket, even if it means reducing its sales volumes (an overall figure of 50,000, matching the Range Rover, is said to be at the higher end of the potential numbers). McGovern said: “It’s not that designs were bad over the past 20 years; it’s more that the strategy was about creating more universal appeal, and competing with mainstream premium products. This made Jaguar more normal. We’ve decided we want to go back to the future, to being a copy of nothing – a complete reimagining.”

The only existing car that will stick around into 2025 is the F-Pace – Jaguar’s current top seller.

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