Jaguar to go SUV only, for now

Production of the XE, XF and F-Type at Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich UK plant will end in June.

Published On Mar 05, 2024 11:31:00 AM

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Jaguar will end production of the XE, XF and F-Type in a matter of weeks, as its Castle Bromwich factory in Birmingham prepares to transition to production of body panels for a whole new line of vehicles. The retirement of Jaguar's two sedans and its flagship sportscar means the brand's line-up will become SUV-only, with just the I-Pace, E-Pace and F-Pace remaining on sale through 2024 in international markets.

Jaguar to be SUV only until next year
XE and XF orders will continue till June
Jaguar India only has F-Pace, I-Pace and F-Type listed

Jaguar's new era begins in 2025 with the introduction of an all-electric four-seat GT car in the vein of the Porsche Taycan, which could be followed a year later by a Bentley Bentayga-style luxury SUV and a large luxury sedan. All will share the brand's new, bespoke JEA platform, and are entirely unrelated to its current models.

Customers can still order a new XE or XF, but the models are being built to set specifications in their final few weeks of production, so configuration isn't possible.

The news was broken to Road & Track magazine (via Automotive News Europe) by Jaguar's North American CEO Joe Eberhardt, who said: “The majority of our products cease production in June, but they will be on sale for a much longer time. We will have a production schedule that enables us to have a continuous supply of vehicles until the new cars come. We're trying to time it so we have enough volume to take us through to the launch of the new product and have a clean handover.”

JLR has confirmed to our sister publication Autocar UK that Castle Bromwich will stop building cars in June, but it remains unclear how long it expects supply of the Brit-built cars to continue.

The Birmingham site – originally used to build Spitfires and Lancaster bombers in World War II – was taken over by Jaguar Cars in 1977, and has historically produced the XK, XJ and S-Type.

It was originally planned to build the electric XJ, but that project was scrapped in 2021, and Jaguar will now build its upcoming EVs, beginning next year with the GT, some 24km away in Solihull.

Last year, in its eighth year on sale, the BMW 3 Series-rivalling XE sold 9,935 units worldwide, compared to the larger XF's 10,918 – both significant increases on the year before and a testament to JLR's ability to increase production of its more affordable models as the supply crisis eased.

They were only outsold by the Solihull-built F-Pace SUV, with nearly 16,000 units sold. The F-Type, which is over a decade old, still recorded 2,678 sales worldwide last year.

Jaguar cars in India

In our market, the British luxury carmaker has just three models on sale – the F-Pace (Rs 72.9 lakh), I-Pace EV (1.26 crore) and F-Type (Rs 1 crore-1.56 crore). While Jaguar did have the XE and XF on sale in India, both models were discontinued due to slow sales.

All prices, ex-showroom, India

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