Is Jaguar already losing faith in the Jaguar XE (pictured)?
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Is Jaguar already losing faith in the Jaguar XE, the new Jaguar that was supposed to ignite sales and let Jaguar emulate the success of Land Rover?
You might expect, with all the hype about the XE arriving to take on the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes C Class and Audi A4, that it would deliver the bulk of Jaguar’s sales in its first full year (2016). But it didn’t.
In fact, it doesn’t seem to be selling much better than the Jaguar X-Type did – Jaguar’s last foray in to the compact executive market – which doesn’t auger well.
Last month (February 2017) Jaguar managed to shift 3,309 XEs, but in the same month it sold 5,323 F-Pace, a car which costs a chunk more to buy. And in the whole of 2016 Jaguar sold 44,096 XEs – just 7,500 more than the sales of the XF.
The lack of sales is no doubt made worse by the lack of variants in the XE range too, with Ian Callum ruling out an XE Estate and Coupe (and by logic a convertible too), models BMW have had so much success with they rebranded them the 4 Series.
Perhaps the disappointing sales of the XE explain why Jaguar is tipping headlong in to its SUV models, taking Land Rover underpinnings and grafting on a Jaguar body and a road-biased setup to bring to the market cars buyers actually seem to want from Jaguar.
The Jaguar F-Pace is already accounting for approaching half Jaguar’s sales, and Jaguar are pushing ahead with a halo F-Pace SVR with the supercharged V8 and up to 550bhp, which is expected to debut in the coming months.
That’s great news for Jaguar’s SUV-loving customers, but why hasn’t Jaguar already delivered an XE SVR with 4WD and over 500bhp to show the Germans and thing or two, and remind Alfa that the Giulia isn’t the only alternative to a 3 Series, C-Class or A4?
We can only conclude that Jaguar is happy to see its traditional sporty saloons relegated to also-rans in both the sales charts and within the company, as the E-Pace arrives to join the F-Pace, and we then wait for the J-Pace to arrive to negate the necessity to bother with a new XJ.
Ed Bates says
I recently had the opportunity to drive every Jaguar model at an open day. I loved every one of the cars but the highlight for me was the XE 250PS. The steering and handling was just brilliant. I would buy one tomorrow if there was an estate version, perhaps it should’ve been a hatch back in the first place.
mark geller says
Don’t think it’s a dissapointment. If you look at the sedan numbers for BMW, the three series is down dramatically also. Mercedes, which has class leading interiors and appeals more to the 50+ set, especially single older women, is still holding up, but not as fast as early years.
Let’s face it. The XE is an alternative to the three series and A-4. The A-4 is as good as both and has more room and also class leading interior (although no one approaches the Mercedes so far). This segment has a ton of reasons to buy one or the other. None really are THAT much better than the other, SO differentiated from the other. Just the fact that XE does 3 to 5000 a month is terrific, in a market which is moving to suv’s in the droves.
Yes, the growth is suv and those that have car-like rides will do better as consumers who haven’t had an suv quickly discover the firmer/harsher more gittery ride and, while loving the high ride position, will still want the car-like softer ride and gravitate back to cars or, what’s really happening, is that they will buy “car-like riding” suv’s.
It’s sort of like being at a football game and with everyone standing up. You need to stand up to see the action also, or you will miss out, no matter how uncomfortable it gets. However, sooner or later, you will sit down and realize that’s the most comfortable position.
Having had suv’s with my sedans for decades, I can tell you that I would rather have a sedan for the town, or road, any day. We are just going to move to car like riding suv’s in the next years, mainly so we can all see the road ahead.
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Rtfa Zeberdee says
The UK British car market is awash with bad management decisions, why can’t they get good management?
Chris (@Chris_xxxxxx) says
If you were a small luxury car maker, and the growth in sales was in the SUV/crossover segment, then where would you put your money? The sales of the F-Pace prove that Jaguar are making the correct decision in rapidly expanding its SUV models. The XE will get an SVR version soon as indicated by AutoExpress and there will likely be a version for the XF as well.
Jaguar is modernising the XE with a new digital instrument dashboard and the Ingenium petrol engine, so this may help sales, but the growth is in premium crossovers. This is why Audi continues to increase its Q brand and they predict that in the future 40% of Audi sales will be SUVs and crossovers.
Cars UK says
The article is a lament; the sporty saloons Jaguar has built the company on are being usurped by SUVs. And yes, if we were running JLR we’d do the same, especially as sales of the XE are, by any measure, a disappointment, hampered by the lack of variants and a halo model. And the market’s obsession with SUVs.
Chris (@Chris_xxxxxx) says
Jaguar is not abandoning the XE since they are currently testing the XE SVR in Spain, according to AutoExpress. The market for premium SUVs is growing, and with Jaguar being a low volume producer, it needs to expand its sales to provide the money to finance future models. It does not help that the XE is not available as an estate and a coupe, which is a mistake but again, it does not have the finances of BMW, Audi and Mercedes Benz.
“New V8 Jaguar XE SVR supersaloon is shaping up, and it’s likely to develop around 500bhp
Jaguar Land Rover’s exclusive Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division, which is responsible for developing high-performance and ultra-luxury versions of existing models, is applying the finishing touches to a fully-fledged BMW M3 rival, the XE SVR.
Auto Express understands that the SVO engineering team is currently in Northern Spain benchmarking the supersaloon – previewed in our exclusive images – against its closest rivals from BMW and Mercedes.”
Cars UK says
We weren’t saying the XE has been abandoned, rather that it has failed to sell the sort of numbers hoped for and the priorities now seem to be the SUVs.
No doubt an XE SVR is on the cards, but it’s 30 months since the XE arrived and still no range-topper SVR, yet the F-Pace arrived a year later and an SVR model looks like it will be arriving in the next few months.
It’s more in sorrow than anything else we ask if the XE is a failure, and if Jaguar’s real future is SUVs. Because that’s how it’s looking.