9:22 am, November 4, 2024
Sales of new Jaguar cars in the UK have come to a halt as the brand announces it has ended allocations of the current generation.
The company has decided to withdraw its original SUV from sale, the final combustion engine model to be axed, meaning you can’t currently order a new car from a Jaguar dealership.
Production of the XE, XF and F-Type models at Castle Bromwich in the UK ended this summer, and the E-Pace and I-Pace, assembled by Magna Steyr in Austria, will end in December 2024.
Jaguar is expected to announce future plans early in 2025, but there will be no new models for over a year, meaning dealers will only be able to sell remaining new cars from stock, used models and Land Rover models. The brand’s dealer network has already been slimmed down ahead of the company’s relaunch, which will move it away from volume sales.
The new Jaguars – due in 2026 – will sit on the company’s fresh JEA EV platform and the first two models are expected to be an electric four-seat GT similar to a Porsche Taycan and an SUV in the mould of a Bentley Bentayga, as Jaguar becomes a bespoke, luxury brand aimed at the very top end of the market.
In a statement, parent company JLR said: ‘From November 2024, new Jaguar sales will come to an end ahead of our new brand reveal later this year and product launch in 2026.
‘We have now ceased allocation of our current generation of Jaguar vehicles. We do have a selection of models available to acquire on an Approved Pre-Owned basis through our UK retail network.’
Speaking about the future of the brand in a Car Dealer Exclusive in September, Jaguar chief Rawdon Glover said: ‘Realistically on our current trajectory it will be a while before [dealers] are going to have cars in their showrooms again. And that’s something we are all going to have to navigate through in the very short term. It’s just as well that the rest of our range is expanding and we’ve got lots of options with Defenders and those sort of things that will tide them over.
‘My job and Paddy McGillycuddy’s (JLR’s UK MD) job is to make the future of Jaguar desirable and for dealers to think it’s worth coming along on this journey.
‘It will be difficult for this bit in the middle and probably in the early years while we’re building up to the full range. We want people that are in it for the long term that absolutely understand the vision of Jaguar needing to change. They support the elevated positioning and everything else that goes with that, because the level of service and even some of our business markets will be different.’
He also revealed that Jaguar was planning its own boutique stores, saying, ‘We’ll have our own stores in key locations: we’ll be in London, we’ll be in Paris, we’ll be in Shanghai.
‘That again is that sense around how you reposition a brand. If you look at some of the established luxury brands, a really clear way to do it is you need to own your own experience and have lighthouses where I want them to be the purest embodiment of the Jaguar experience. So, I’ll be in the Golden triangle in Paris or in London you’re either going to be in Knightsbridge or you’re going to be in Bond Street.’
‘We will not leave existing owners high and dry,’ added Glover. ‘They’ll be able to get their cars serviced at all JLR dealers.’
