If you’re a Jaguar dealer right now, you may be a little concerned. While the British automaker’s lineup may not be quite as lifeless as Chrysler’s, the range is aging and fast. To add insult to injury, the company’s electric XJ replacement was scrapped not too long ago — seemingly at the eleventh hour, presumably when execs realized it didn’t have a hope in hell of competing with rivals.
Now Jaguar wants to push aggressively upmarket. The plan is to rival Bentley with a three-car lineup of all-electric offerings priced much higher than their existing models. This is all set to happen in 2025. With a smaller, pricier, and more exclusive range planned, it will mean that Jaguar is forced to shrink its U.S. dealer network. But JLR may have a solution to make this realization a tad more palatable.
Related: Jaguar And Land Rover Dealers At War With Automaker Over New Contracts
On the Land Rover side of the camp, order books are swelling. Despite semi-conductor-related delays in fulfillment, JLR actually posted a profit in the latter half of 2022. Sales were led by the new Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, and Defender models.
According to a report by Autonews, JLR has begun to whittle down the number of Jaguar dealers by offering them their pick of hot-selling Land Rovers. According to one unnamed dealer, as many as 40 Jaguar outlets may have already bitten.
But the company will need many more to take up this offer if the Jaguar brand is going to be successful at offering ultra exclusivity. At the moment, there are some 395 JLR dealerships in the U.S., with many of them offering both Jaguar and Land Rover products side by side. A company like Bentley or Aston Martin makes do with just 50 outlets, with many of them clustered in upscale markets like Los Angeles, New York, and Miami.
This would track with reports that suggest that Jaguar is looking to knock their dealership count across the pond by some 75 percent, reducing the number of outlets from 80 to just 20. The JLR camp has denied it has settled on such a figure, but it would make sense. It would also appear that some existing European Jaguar dealers have been offered larger allocations of Land Rovers and the ability to continue to service and provide parts for the existing lineup of Jags sold today.
