Jaguar ditches roaring massive cat badge for its EV rebrand – and admits it will not attraction to conventional prospects

Jaguar is to ditch its teeth-baring big cat logo as part of a radical electric rebrand that it concedes won’t appeal to the majority of its traditional customers.

The ‘growler’ logo, the universally-recognised snarling Jaguar head badge used for decades on the grilles and bonnets of iconic cars including the E-Type, has fallen victim to a revamping of the firm’s style and identity as it seeks out younger, wealthier and more diverse customers for its next generation of expensive EVs.

Its leaping Jaguar emblem will remain, but in a very modified form as the car maker embarks on ambitious and daring plans to become an electric-only luxury brand over the next 12 months.

During a roundtable to discuss the company’s new EV-only direction, bosses said there is ‘no Plan B’, insisting the firm has to be ‘fearless’ and to challenge convention in order to survive.

By dumping petrol and diesel engines four years ahead of the Government’s deadline and relaunching Jaguar with a new image, bosses say they expect to retain just 15 per cent of the marque’s existing customers. 

Executives added that they are starting from ‘a clean sheet’ to reinvent the company because most of its future customers, it argues, don’t even know about current Jaguar or its rich heritage.

Many fear the bold plans and company rebranding may prove to be a step too far, especially if it fails to translate controversy and excitement into hard cash sales.

At the very least, it is a decisive move to break away from the traditional comfortable ‘gin and Jaguar’ image of its cars sitting on the extensive gravel driveways of middle-class cigar-smoking, golfing owners’ detached houses in well-heeled Home County enclaves of Surrey, Berkshire, and Essex, Cheshire’s Alderley Edge or Newcastle’s Darras Hall and Gosforth.

Announcing the reveal of ‘a completely reimagined brand’, Jaguar said: ‘It embraces bold designs, unexpected and original thinking, creating a brand character that will command attention through fearless creativity.’

Jaguar’s new logos

The revamp sees the Jaguar name spelled out in a new specially-created type font call ‘Jaguar Exuberant’. It combines mainly lower case letters with an upper-case capital ‘G’.

It calls this new signature its ‘device mark’ and says: ‘It is a powerful celebration of modernism – geometric form, symmetry and simplicity – demonstrating the unexpected by seamlessly blending upper and lowercase characters in visual harmony.

The company will also get a new ‘identity symbol’, which features horizontal lines forming a square or oblong shape.

Jaguar designers point to the three line Adidas logo and the IBM lines as inspiration. Perhaps even Silk Cut cigarette adverts which featured purple silk, but no cigarettes.

They say: ‘This bold linear graphic generates an unmistakeable presence and an immediately recognisable visual for Jaguar, striking through imitation and the ordinary.’

The use of lines will also be deployed for its new ‘maker’s mark’, which has a more subtle expression of the Jaguar ‘leaper’.

The British car maker says: ‘Consisting of the newly reimagined Jaguar ‘leaper’ that is our precious mark of provenance. Always leaping forward, it is a representation of excellence and hallmark of the brand.’

And the final addition to Jaguar’s new EV-inspired branding portfolio is a ‘monogram’.

This is a circular disk containing two artistically formed letter ‘J’s. Think of the interlocking ‘G’s in the Gucci fashion symbol.

Jaguar says: ‘The monogram is a code for expression and a signifier of a completed work. It is used as a flourish or finishing touch.’

A glimpse of new advertising material also suggests there will be lots of exuberant bright red, yellow (including brass) and blues in boutique showrooms and associated branding.

Jaguar says: ‘Exuberant use of colour is a cornerstone of Jaguar’s new brand identity, embedded in its values and its association with art. 

‘Primary colours, born from the painter’s palette – yellow, red and blue – are the tonal building blocks, always presented with texture or movement.’

Is Jaguar’s EV rebrand too controversial? 

Jaguar design chief Gerry McGovern was unapologetic about courting controversy with the rebranding and restyling of Jaguar: ‘It will shock, surprise and polarise.

‘It will make you feel uncomfortable. That’s fine. The world is not standing still.’

His aim was to ‘amplify our unique British heritage’ in a modern 21st century manner.

Speaking at a briefing at JLR’s design centre at Gaydon in Warwickshire, he said he wanted to create the same stir that the E-Type created in the 1960s: ‘The brief I set was to be jaw-dropping.’

He said: ‘This has been years in the making. It’s not just about reshaping a car. It’s about redefining, and reimagining a brand. It’s about reimagining Jaguar. This is big.’

Highlighting that 800 people had worked on the radical redesign and re-branding, he jokingly promised: ‘We have not been sniffing the white stuff.’

More seriously, McGovern later stressed: ‘Jaguar has its roots in originality. Sir William Lyons, our founder, believed that ‘A Jaguar should be a copy of nothing’.

‘Our vision for Jaguar today is informed by this philosophy. New Jaguar is a brand built around Exuberant Modernism. It is imaginative, bold and artistic at every touchpoint. It is unique and fearless.

‘This is a reimagining that recaptures the essence of Jaguar, returning it to the values that once made it so loved, but making it relevant for a contemporary audience.

‘We are creating Jaguar for the future, restoring its status as a brand that enriches the lives of our clients and the Jaguar community.’

Jaguar doesn’t expect to retain customers in EV move 

Jaguar managing director Rawdon Glover said 85 per cent of future Jaguar customers would be new to Jaguar and to the JLR company. 

Only 15 per cent – around one in seven – are expected to be existing customers. This was the scale of the transformation, he said.

While optimistic about the brand’s furure, Glover conceded that there is ‘no Plan B’. 

‘We think it is going to be a success,’ he told This is Money.

‘There are a lot of people out there who have not got Jaguar on their shopping list. We have to persuade and convince them.’

Glover also stressed they had to be ‘fearless’, adding: ‘This is a complete reset. Jaguar is transformed to reclaim its originality and inspire a new generation.’

The rebranding of Jaguar will shift up a gear on 2 December when it unveils an equally radical and ‘jaw-dropping’ concept car signalling the direction of its EV future.

Bosses say it is ‘a copy of nothing’ but admit its design will likely divide opinion as surely as Marmite.

Billed as a ‘Design Vision Concept’ it is the precursor to three new EV production models from 2026.

The first of the trio of new battery-powered premium models was previewed only last week, 

The Tata-owned firm issued photographs of a disguised version of the first of these – a sporty four-door GT grand tourer – embarking on its top secret global testing programme. 

It will be the first all-new electric Jag to go on sale from 2026.

The car has a claimed range of 435 miles and prices will start from just under £100,000.

That’s around double that of the average current Jaguar.