Jaguar Land Rover is facing a number of challenges and this has resulted in the death of the Discovery SVX and Range Rover SV Coupe.
While it’s sad those models will never get to hit the street, it appears there’s still a future for Jaguar coupes. Speaking to Top Gear, Jaguar design director Ian Callum said “There will always be a Jag two-door coupe in the lineup, because that’s the story of what we’re about and you can’t build a brand without a story.”
The designer went on to call coupes “essential” to the brand, even though they sell in small numbers. Last year, F-Type sales fell to 2,268 units in the United States which was a nearly 50% decline from 2017.
Low volumes can make it hard to justify coupes and convertibles, and that’s part of the reason BMW and Toyota joined forces for the Z4 and Supra. It could also help to explain why Mercedes decided to drop the SLC after years of declining sales.
Callum acknowledged the challenges by telling the publication, “The coupe market is more difficult, it’s more niche.” He went on to suggest low volumes are one of the reasons why the XE didn’t spawn a coupe variant to battle the Audi A5, BMW 4-Series and Mercedes C-Class Coupe.
Callum didn’t have much to say about the company’s next coupe, but rumors have suggested the next-generation F-Type could be offered with everything from an electric powertrain to a BMW-sourced twin-turbo V8. The latter rumor seems pretty sketchy, but an electric powertrain is possible as Callum said “I think ultimately, we’re all going to go electric.” He went on suggest such a move is “inevitable,” but with the “sports car side of it, we can’t say yet.”
