Jaguar has a new global boss as it gears up to reinvent itself for the electric era.
Rawdon Glover has been handed the reins as managing director of Jaguar, having previously served as Jaguar Land Rover UK managing director. CarDealer reports Mr Glover’s appointment follows a recent decision to drastically cut the number of Jaguar dealers in the UK.
He takes over from Philip Koehn, who was only publicly announced as Jaguar MD in December 2022.
A statement published by Autocar from Jaguar says it will “be reimagined as an all-electric luxury brand by 2025”.
“It will be a copy of nothing. As the business now prepares to launch the reimagined Jaguar brand to clients around the world, we have appointed Rawdon Glover as brand managing director.”
Jaguar is currently in the process of reinventing itself. Under the Reimagine business plan laid out by outgoing CEO Thierry Bollore, it committed to developing its own electric vehicle platform dubbed Panthera in conjunction with supplier Magna.
That platform is intended to give next-generation Jaguar vehicles unique proportions and capabilities, and is expected to underpin at least two SUVs, along with a coupe.
The Reimagine plan is meant to turn Jaguar into a lower-volume, higher-profit member of the Jaguar Land Rover family aimed at battling Bentley instead of BMW.
It’s not clear if Bollore’s sudden departure late in 2022 will see that plan change.
This isn’t the first time Jaguar has been reborn in the modern era.
Under Ford ownership (1990-2008), the X-Type and S-Type sedans were launched with the goal of returning the brand to profit, with the Aston Martin-derived XK sports car sitting atop the range as a halo.
With Indian giant Tata at the wheel (2008-present), it has attempted to take on the German luxury players first by rolling out a pair of modern-looking sedans (XE and XF), and again with SUVs in some of the best-selling new car segments (F-Pace and E-Pace).
It also beat its rivals to the EV punch with the unique-looking I-Pace SUV still doing service, although it hasn’t expanded its range of electric cars since its debut in 2018.
