Obituary | Jaguar Cars Ltd 1945

Jaguar Cars is a manufacturer of luxury cars headquartered in Whitely, Coventry, England. Jaguar became a fully-fledged automotive business in 1945. However, the company’s earliest known origins can be traced to 1922. Back then Jaguar Cars was called the Swallow Sidecar Company and specialized in making motorcycle sidecars. By 1945, after mergers and acquisitions, the Swallow Side Car Company eventually became Jaguar Cars as we know it today. The most famous Jaguar of any era, of any decade, was the E Type. It is fair to say Jaguar has been living in the E Type’s shadow ever since.

The Jaguar car history was one of brilliance, stumbling down and stumbling back up, before brilliantly stumbling forward. For the past 20 years, Jaguar’s stumbling became ever more pronounced. Mergers, acquisitions, uncertainty, relaunches. Today the company is like an aging rock star trying to reinvent itself to stay relevant to a younger audience.

The latest Jaguar reinvention plan will lead to its eventual demise. The hapless current CEO Thierry Bollore, who upon being appointed the CEO of Jaguar and Land Rover openly stated Jaguar is a damaged brand. How is Bollore going to resuscitate Jaguar sales when by his own statement he openly believes it can not be saved?

The lack of pushback from the mainstream automotive press was like hearing a tree fall in a forest when no one is there. Bollore’s plan is to reduce Jaguar volume production from around 160,000 units per year to 60,000.

Under Ballore’s so-called Re-imagine plan, Jaguar will transition into a maker of luxury pure electric cars with a premium price tag to match Bentley. What the co-opted media outlet did not pushback on is that Bollore’s Re-imagine strategy is a plan to cut job cuts in an effort to stem financial losses.

If you work for Jaguar on the assembly line, you will know exactly what the so-called Re-imagine plan means for your future. The puff pieces written by the co-opted media can not hide the fact that the tanks are already in the square and the gun barrels are pointed at Jaguar.

The Re-imagine plan will fail, and when it does Jaguar will have run out of time and money for yet another relaunch. On this day, Jaguar Cars died.

Source:

https://www.autocar.co.uk/opinion/new-cars/jaguars-ev-reinvention-will-be-mcgoverns-toughest-test-yet

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/jaguar-land-rover-ceo-chips-evs-quality-and-discovery

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/exclusive-jaguar-return-2025-trio-electric-sports-suvs