In the past years, Jaguar has been taking an offensive stance in the premium automobile market and with the launch of new, compelling products, the now Tata-owned company, managed to draw customers’ attention.
Now British automaker has more ambitious plans in the work along with its sibling Land Rover brand. Senior company officials told TheDetroitBureau.com that the two brands will jointly be launching a major product assault over the next five years with the goal of lifting Jaguar and Land Rover out of their low-volume niches and planting them much more firmly in the luxury mainstream.
Adrian Hallmark, Jaguar Global Brand Director, said the compamy will be launching 40 new cars, derivatives and (major) technologies from Jaguar/Land Rover in the next five years. To gain more traction in the premium market, the company will break down the products into three categories.
- Products that slot above and below the current Jaguar and Land Rover line-up, as well as those that broaden the current line-up’s appeal;
- Products that can expand the appeal of the two brands in markets where they currently don’t have a presence;
- Technologies that expand the capabilities of the two brands — possibly including new diesels, hybrids and other advanced propulsion systems.
As we announced in the past also, a new vehicle will be slotted below the XF model as a competitor to the smaller offerings from BMW, Audi and Mercedes.
But the company won’t stop here. Seeing the continuing growth of the crossover market, Jaguar is planning to build a competitor for the BMW X5 and Audi Q7. “Just because we’re part of Jaguar/Land Rover doesn’t mean we can’t look at crossovers,” said Hallmark.
But the company has no plans to develop a product that will overlap with the offerings under the Land Rover brand. “We will not overlap,” echoed Dr. Ralf Speth, the Jaguar Land Rover CEO.
At one point, former Ford CEO Jacques Nasser laid out plans that could push Jaguar sales to 200,000 a year and beyond. Today, however, it is barely at the 50,000 mark. The product offensive could transform the maker from a niche player to something more on a par with its German rivals, though “We won’t be selling 1 million Jaguars a year,” Hallmark cautioned. “But we want to sell big multiples” of the current numbers…a lot more than today.”
[Source: TheDetroitBureau ]
Author: Horatiu Boeriu
Source: http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/05/06/jagua ... offensive/