Next-gen Jaguar EVs to be Bentley rivals

Jaguar will reinvent itself as a luxury pure-electric brand to take on Bentley, with its cheapest model set to cost £100,000 ($A185,000) – more than three times the cost of its current entry-level Jaguar XE.

Factor in luxury car tax and other charges and the cost of the incoming entry-level Jaguar is primed to rocket to in excess of $300,000 in Australia.

In an interview with Auto Express, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bollore confirmed a new family of Jags had already been designed and approved for production, with the first Bentley-rivalling model set to arrive in 2025.

The all-new line-up is rumoured to consist of at least two SUVs and one sporty two-door replacement for the current Jaguar F-TYPE, although instead of a two-seater it's thought Jag's new performance flagship will seat four.

All will share the same pure-electric powertrains and be based on the same all-new architecture.

Speaking of platforms, Bollore confirmed the search for a suitable architecture to underpin its new family of vehicles is still underway.

Despite targeting the likes of Bentley and Porsche, Bollore told the Brit mag that in the future Jaguar must have a different take on luxury for it to succeed.

“When Jaguar was incredibly successful, at the time when the E-Type got onto the market, it was a copy of nothing. That is what we are preparing now," he said.

Developed under the 'modern luxury' tag, Bollore says his vision of Jaguar is a leader for new tech, with its new cars set to offer state-of-the-art engineering and that's why it will cost significantly more than the current range.

"Luxury starts not far from £100,000. And then modern luxury, for us, is something which is extremely reductive, which is getting positioned in a way that fits with Jaguar in terms of refinement, in terms of modernity, in terms of engineering, in terms of technologies," he said.

Admitting the Jaguar turnaround will not be easy, Bollore went on to describe the brand as being "damaged" and unable to compete effectively lower down in the premium segment.

“They are beautiful cars. So you are wondering why we don’t sell more? They go for Audi or they go for BMW. So it’s a real issue in the positioning of the brand,” he said.

Key to Jaguar's revival, the ex-Renault boss says, is giving JLR's design chief Gerry McGovern creative freedom to reimagine Jaguars of the future.

"Gerry has created an incredible contest inside the company with all designers," said Bollore.

"He has given the same instruction to three different groups, with their own inspiration. And they were totally free to reinvent absolutely from scratch what could be the future Jaguar."

Bollore said that another crucial aspect going forward is that both Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles will be repositioned to ensure they don't compete against one another.

"I think our customers, if you take Land Rover, want large cars. What we can hear is, ‘We want space’ and we want to match with the needs of our customers. It’s not because it’s luxurious or not luxurious, but what they want is significant space," he said.

It's not known if that's a subtle hint both the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport might not live on for another generation, but Bollore did admit that it's not just Jaguars that are set to get more expensive.

“The goal is really to harvest the positioning of Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery. We have not reached by far our potential, especially with Range Rover and Defender in terms of pricing power. The beauty of that business model is that we can get higher in price and still enjoy scale which is very significant compared to the other luxurious brands.”

Helping Jaguar meet its ambitious 2025 deadline to launch a new family of vehicles is a new development process that's claimed to be up to 40 per cent faster than before.