Jaguar EVs to be priced at Bentley, Porsche levels

LONDON -- Jaguar's new electric-only range of cars will start at about 100,000 pounds ($140,000), Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bollore told a British publication.

Jaguar Land Rover has been indicating that Jaguar will push further upmarket since the company announced its Reimagine turnaround plan in February, which includes the Jaguar brand dropping combustion engine cars starting in 2025.

This is the first clear indication the automaker has given on price of Jaguar's new all-electric range, which will start to roll out in 2025. The cars will embody "modern luxury," Jaguar says.

"Luxury starts not far from 100,000 pounds," Bollore told Auto Express magazine in an interview.

JLR confirmed Bollore's comments to Automotive News Europe.

Pitching its new cars at around 100,000 pounds would put Jaguar against rivals such as Bentley and Porsche, far above its current competition of BMW and Audi.

Bollore told Auto Express that the designs for the range of new electric Jaguars had been signed off. 

He gave no further details of the cars. The magazine said the range will comprise of two crossovers and one sporty two-door model without giving a source for its information.

Bollore has said JLR will look outside the company for an electric platform suitable for Jaguar.

Jaguar will emulate the "unique" positioning of Range Rover to position its new models in the market, Bollore said in a separate interview with the UK's Autocar magazine.

"Look at Range Rover," Bollore told the magazine. "It's satisfactory on price and profit levels, and we haven't yet reached the ceiling. The price is extraordinary, and we have the volumes."

Bollore said that the Jaguar I-Pace full-electric crossover would be the brand's only current car to continue after 2025, but that it would be positioned differently to the new models.

Bollore said it has been damaging to the Jaguar brand to try to compete with German premium brands BMW and Audi. 

"Customers, they see the car, like the car and test the car, and they still go and buy an Audi or a BMW," Bollore said. "That's the problem. People buy the originals. We are not the originals. We have to get the positioning of Jaguar much different, higher and more original."

JLR head of design Gerry McGovern has previously spoken about the need to get Jaguar back to when it was "a copy of nothing," referencing the 1960s E-type sports car as an example. 

Bollore, a former CEO of Renault and Carlos Ghosn's right-hand man, has dramatically changed the course of JLR since taking over from Ralf Speth last September. The company has said it no longer wants to chase Audi, BMW and Mercedes and has abandoned its goal of reaching 1 million sales annually. 

Bollore wrote off 1 billion pounds of investment into the planned Modular Longitudinal Architecture electrified platform that had been designed to underpin the bulk of future Land Rover and Jaguar models.

Cars on the so-called "MLA low" and "MLA mid" architectures were canceled, including the long-heralded electric Jaguar XJ sedan, a lower-riding electric Land Rover called Road Rover by the UK motoring press and the Jaguar J-Pace SUV.