Jaguar and Land Rover’s Tricky Balancing Act – The Big Picture

“The F-Pace is the emphatic resolution of an existential crisis that has been gnawing at the soul of the storied British brand for more than two decades now,” I wrote a year ago after driving it in ruggedly beautiful Montenegro. “The Jaguar SUV is finally here. And it’s not the end of automotive civilization as we know it.”

Customers agree. In fact, the sexy, glamorous F-Pace accounted for almost 40 percent of all new Jaguars sold worldwide last year, helping the brand to a new global sales record. The F-Pace is on track to do for Jaguar what the Cayenne did for Porsche, becoming a juicy cash cow that can be milked to fatten profits and fund the development of future Jaguars. And the relief in Coventry is palpable, for without the F-Pace, Jaguar’s future would be pretty uncertain.

Jaguar has always built sports cars but long relied on sedans for volume and profits. After buying Jaguar and Land Rover from cash-strapped Ford Motor Company in 2008, new owners Tata faithfully followed the old formula, investing not only in a new sports car family—the F-Type—but also in new sedans. Both the XF and XE four-doors are Jaguar’s most competitive offerings in segments long dominated by the Germans. Trouble is, fewer people are interested in buying sedans these days.

“We have got to be realistic,” says Andy Goss, JLR’s global sales chief. “The sedan segment in every market in the world is under enormous pressure.” That means one thing: More Jaguar SUVs are on their way. A compact Jaguar SUV, dubbed E-Pace and based on the same platform as the Range Rover Evoque but with design cues that echo the shapely F-Pace, is expected to make its debut at the Frankfurt show in September.

In an era when even Bentley builds an SUV, making more off-road-oriented Jaguars makes perfect business sense. In JLR’s case, though, there’s a complicating factor: Land Rover. When you already own one of the world’s seminal SUV brands, bringing a newcomer to the SUV party demands a delicate balancing act. The new Range Rover Velar proves just how delicate.

The Jaguar F-Pace might be Jaguar’s first SUV, but the Velar is the first Land Rover built on a Jaguar platform. Both cars share the same basic hardware, a vehicle architecture that, ironically, also underpins the current-generation XF and XE Jaguar sedans. The F-Pace rides high, wide, and handsome for a Jaguar. The Velar is the lowest, sleekest Land Rover in history. Convergence theory on wheels.

“If you look at F-Pace versus Velar,” Goss says, “the Jaguar is dialed up in terms of off-road attributes, but the Velar is a proper all-terrain Land Rover. We try to keep it distinct in that way.” But will Velar and F-Pace buyers, the overwhelming majority of whom would never take either vehicle off-road, notice the subtle distinction? “We recognize retailers will at times encourage a customer to cross-shop the two,” Goss says. “That’s just being pragmatic. But we don’t want the two to morph into each other.”

The solution? Although Land Rover heads forward into the past by reinventing the iconic go-anywhere Defender to counterbalance the Velar and bolster the brand’s ultimate off-roader credentials, Jaguar will spearhead JLR’s foray into battery electric vehicles. The Jaguar I-Pace concept previews a production BEV that will have 400 hp and AWD, as well as a 300-mile range and stunning good looks. The I-Pace will be the first of a family of fast, quiet, stylish electric Jaguars that will sit alongside its existing sports car and expanded SUV lineup.

As such, the smooth, silent thrust of an electric powertrain combined with the design freedom of its compact packaging might allow Jaguar to deliver a range of modern, high-tech vehicles with qualities consistent with the brand’s original mission: cars with grace, space, and pace.

More from Angus MacKenzie:

• Why Automakers Are Still Betting on Electrification
• The Unexpected Way Autonomous Tech Could Benefit the AMG E63
• Sacre Bleu! The French Are Coming!

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