Why are Jaguar sales falling?

Jaguar Land Rover sales are up, but they’re being driven by Land Rover and Range Rover sales with Jaguar sales dropping by over 10 per cent. But why?

We’ve got used to Jaguar Land Rover reporting ever increasing sales, and this year is no different. Jaguar Land Rover sales are up by 28 per cent in September (an important plate-change sales month) and Land Rover saw an increase of over 40 per cent.

That gap between JLR overall sales and Land Rover sales is accounted for by a drop of over 10 per cent for Jaguar, a worrying sign perhaps for the ‘sporty’ side of the JLR partnership, just as the new Jaguar F-Type has been revealed.

But why are Jaguar sales falling?

Jaguar say it’s because the luxury saloon market is down overall – which it is – and that last September’s sales saw the first sales for the 2.2 litre diesel XF, giving Jaguar sales a boost. But Jaguar sales are also down by a similar amount in the USA, a market that doesn’t get any diesel XFs, never mind the 2.2D, although sales across the world are still rising, up in the rest of the world by the same amount they are down in the UK and US.

Despite the figures, Jaguar are bullish about sales and believe that the XF Sportbrake and efficiency improvements across the range – and the new F-Type, V6 S/C engine, and 4WD for overseas markets – will result in an improvement in sales. But are they right?

No doubt the F-Type will garner sales when it starts to arrive next year, but a sports car starting at £60k – and rising to £90k – may be a great way to show the world what Jaguar are about – and hang the brand identity on – but the F-Type will never drive Jaguar sales. No, what Jaguar needs is new models and more niche product so they can compete on level terms with the German premium makers.

So even though sales of the Jaguar XF are holding up and the XJ is still outselling every other big luxury car in the UK apart from the Mercedes S Class, Jaguar need to bring new products to market as soon as they can.

Those new products are the new small Jaguar and the Jaguar Crossover – Jaguar’s not-quite-an-SUV – which we should expect to be a sportier version of the 2014 Range Rover Sport.

But both the new small Jaguar – a car Jaguar need to take on the volume sales the likes of BMW enjoy with the 3-Series – and the Jaguar Crossover are at least two or three years away, so in the meantime Jaguar need more ‘niche’ products to not only garner more sales but to keep the Jaguar brand ‘interesting’.

We’d like to see both a Jaguar XF Coupe and a Jaguar XJ coupe introduced – the XF Coupe was mooted as long ago as 2009 and the XJ Coupe was on the drawing board then too – and some ‘halo’ diesel product too.

Coupe versions of premium cars like Audi, BMW and Mercedes are driving brand perception – and sales – and ever more powerful diesel models give a performance halo with more than a hint of green. So we’d like to see Jaguar get on with its coupe offerings – a great way to illustrate the ‘sporty’ nature of Jaguar – and stick more powerful diesels in the XF, XJ and even the XK.

But therein could lie a problem: Will the 4.4 litre V8 diesel fit in any of Jaguar’s current crop of cars? An XFRD with the 4.4 litre V8 and an XJ Supersport diesel with the same lump would offer cracking performance and potential for silly mpg, but we don’t know if Jaguar can shoehorn the diesel V8 in to either car.

We do know that the last XJ – the last of a line of similar-looking XJs going back forty years – was unable to take the V8 diesel, and with the XF based on the old S-Type it’s also possible the appealing V8 won’t fit there either. If that’s the case, we must assume we won’t see a V8 diesel in any of Jaguar’s cars until the new XF, XJ and XK arrive in a few years time.

So it looks like Jaguar are going to have to keep interest and drive sales with a coupe version of the XF and XJ and hope that they help keep sales buoyant in the UK and US until the new small Jaguar and Jaguar Crossover arrive, along with the new XF, XJ and XK, in the next few years.

All that said, Jaguar’s sales are still strong and the planned new models and replacements for current models should see Jaguar emulating the sort of stellar sales figures Land Rover is achieving with the Range Rover Evoque.

Which would be very good to see.

By Cars UK