On first seeing it, my thoughts immediately went to to Lady Penelope’s Ford Thunderbird car from the Thunderbirds movie (2004), which can be seen at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon in the English county of Warwickshire – coincidentally, where Jaguar’s research and development department is located. Perhaps there was some unconscious inspiration from a lunch break visit.

There has been much talk in recent weeks of the Jaguar rebrand and the marketing and PR teams’ efforts were clearly effective. My social network feeds, for one, have been dominated by discussion of it for well over a week. The purists clearly weren’t happy. But, there is a definitive need to reform and change, due to diminishing sales over the past 12 months, industry wide dips in sales of new cars and increased competition from China in the production of electric vehicles.

The rebrand is a timely opportunity to recenter the carmaker’s product range and the Type 00 GT is clearly a step in the traditional direction and focus of Jaguar as opposed to Jaguar SUV’s introduced in 2016 which are more the preserve of their sister brand, Land Rover. Ensuring that Jaguar remains its own distinctive brand and doesn’t succumb to a victim of “badge engineering” (the marketing of the same model under different brands and models) that was the downfall of many British car brands in the 1970’s is important.

In some respects, the approach to the launch has been rather Tesla-esque: a slick, high profile, highly charged and curated introduction, such as that used on the Cybertruck. As opposed to the traditional unveiling at a car show, Jaguar chose Miami Art Week and it’s a bold statement. This is not the first time that Jaguar and Land Rover cars have been identified as art, with the original 1970 Range Rover being the first car to be exhibited at the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

Continues…

For the full article by Dr Matthew Watkins visit the Conversation.