Cadillac Rival Jaguar Laments EV Transition As ‘Hugely Frustrating’

Three years ago, Cadillac rival Jaguar announced ambitious plans to transition to all-electric brand by 2025, but things seem to have not gone as planned since then. It’s been almost five years since Jaguar brought a new model to market, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed internally, prompting director Rawdon Glover to go public with his dissatisfaction about Jag’s current trajectory.

“It’s been hugely frustrating – saying we’re going all EV then ‘nothing.’ We need to take [the brand] back to when we made beautiful desirable cars, not in huge numbers and not having huge numbers [of models] in the portfolio. Until recently we were up to six or seven models,” Glover recently told Top Gear.

But while the electrification process has proven difficult, Glover admitted that Jaguar was backed into a corner. It had to make sweeping changes in order to stay relevant – and stay afloat. To do so, the automaker plans to reinvent itself with a smaller lineup of high-end EVs with a goal of attracting affluent buyers who are willing to shell out £120,000″ (approximately $157,032 USD) or more for a vehicle.

Things look to be trending in the right direction, with Jaguar planning to unveil a new concept vehicle later this year. Its first production model, which will drive its relaunch, is expected to be a four-door EV fastback with over 430 miles of range, with two SUVs to follow. Additionally, the automaker plans to introduce EV services like bespoke charging wallboxes. However, Jaguar says it doesn’t have plans to build a charging network similar to Tesla’s, although its buyers will have access to the EV giant’s Supercharger network.

Full electrification hasn’t proven easy for any of the traditional automakers, even prompting Cadillac to scale back its own plans to transition to an all-EV portfolio by the end of the decade. More recently, Volvo revealed that it’s following suit as demand for EVs has cooled.