Jaguar has been around for nearly 80 years, but it’s seldom been smooth sailing for the brand. Since 1966, the company has had four different owners, and the two most recent—Ford and Tata—struggled to push the automaker into profitability.
The problem wasn't Jaguar's identity. For decades, the brand was a staple for lovely looking sports coupes and fast luxury sedans. The problem was that no modern automaker could survive on sedans and sports coupes alone—even Porsche had to build the Cayenne.
Ironically, Jaguar saw the writing on the wall earlier than most. After Tata Motors purchased Jag and combined it with Land Rover in 2008, it built out its lineup in a hurry: A trio of sedans to rival the Germans—including a worthy BMW 3 Series competitor—the timeless F-Type sports car, and an electric crossover called the I-Pace. With Land Rover focused on more rugged SUVs, it seemed like JLR had every base covered.
For more than a decade, Jag was steaming ahead on a seemingly unstoppable run. Sales rose precipitously between 2011 and 2018. But by 2022, its numbers had shrunk nearly right back to where the company had started. Now, JLR has officially discontinued every single Jaguar model except the F-Pace—and even that SUV isn’t long for this world.
We laid out the reasons for this automotive calamity in a previous article. In short, Jaguar was battling in hot segments where it couldn't compete on price, it was never truly profitable as a result, and its path to making money via higher-margin SUVs was blocked by its own sister brand Land Rover.
But that’s not even the really interesting part of the story.
Automakers often aim for the king of a segment, but fall short with an arguably inferior product. Think of every brand’s "3 Series killer;" Roughly a decade ago (excluding BMW’s classic German competition Audi and Mercedes-Benz), Lexus, Cadillac, Alfa Romeo, and yes, even Jaguar all took a shot.
It’s fair to say the high-performance versions of these cars are respectable in their own right. Indeed, the CT4-V Blackwing, which followed the ATS-V, offers a more driver-centric alternative to the current M3 and M5. However, the regular versions of these Cadillacs are no 3 Series. The Lexus IS was too soft, with awful infotainment, the Cadillac ATS/CT4 never had the right engine, and the Alfa Romeo Giulia was, well, an Alfa Romeo.
But the Jaguar XE stood out.
The regular XE was, in almost every way, better than the 3 Series, especially in its higher trims. The interior was better, the engine was more powerful, and even the eight-speed automatic transmission—a staple of modern BMWs—was tuned better than the Germans could manage. To keep it short and sweet; It was tighter on a backroad than the 3 Series, and its supercharged V-6 was even sweeter than the Bavarian’s bread-and-butter inline mill. Other brands could get BMW in one or two areas, but not several. The Jaguar XE did that.
Similar praise can be heaped upon the F-Type. It forged a unique path between the two giants of the segment: The Porsche 911 and the Chevrolet Corvette. Its sales were paltry comparatively, but it completed the classic Jaguar portfolio with a great V-8 engine, a manual transmission, and even all-wheel drive.
That’s not to mention the XF and XJ sedans, or the I-Pace, which made Jag’s lineup even more appealing. The Jaguar showroom (at one point in time) was full of cars that were competitive, future-facing, and genuinely desirable. They weren’t footnotes—they competed fiercely in their respective segments and often punched above their weight.
And now it’s all gone. Just like that. Poof.
The decision to build out that robust lineup was a risk that did not pay off, and now JLR has responded by reorganizing Land Rover in the name of profitability and taking another huge risk on Jaguar. It’s reacting to a failed gamble with another gamble: Jag will go all-electric and move upmarket to compete with Bentley and Porsche. As it’s doing this, the company is watching Lotus try—arguably in vain—to do almost exactly the same thing.
For more than a decade, Jag was steaming ahead on a seemingly unstoppable run.
I can’t think of another car company that’s had a more interesting decade than Jaguar. The brand is simultaneously a relic of the 20th century—not much more than an eye-catching hood ornament these days—and a company once impossible to ignore. It rose rapidly, competed with some of the best, and is now back to square one. The previous Ram 1500 remained on sale during this entire cycle of birth and death. One generation.
In some ways, it all makes sense. Jaguar didn’t slowly evolve into the 2010s as other long-standing automakers did, instead, it exploded into the decade with several bold new models. It’s fair to call Jaguar’s entire gambit a failure sitting here now—the company didn’t make any money—but Jag’s ambition defined an entire decade of the automobile. As did its failure.
