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Feann Torr15 May 2015
NEWS

Jaguar will be "world's performance car of choice"

Global brand director insists Jaguar will catch and overtake Porsche as leading drivers' cars

During the new Jaguar XF sedan's global premiere in New York, the UK car maker's global brand director, Steven De Ploey, declared: "Jaguar is the world's performance car of choice".

Two-dozen heads immediately snapped around as reporters pondered this bold statement.

Porsche might have something to say about that; the German brand is arguably the sports car yardstick – critics and enthusiasts regularly use it as the benchmark.

After the presentation we cornered the senior executive and asked him to clarify his position. Here's what he said: "Clearly what we're saying is it's a vision."

But De Ploey is adamant it's Jaguar's destiny to be driver's car of choice.

"We want to become the world's performance brand of choice. What does that concretely mean? First and foremost in terms of product, we want to be perceived by you guys, primarily the media, but also by customers as the brand that delivers the best driver's experience.

"From a ride and handling point of view, from a performance delivery point of view, it's where we want to stand out," he said.

Essentially what the Jaguar brand boss is saying is that it will offer drivers more satisfaction behind the wheel than Porsche can. How exactly does the leaping cat brand hope to achieve this monumental feat? A lot of it is branding, insists De Ploey.

"From a brand point of view, when we measure how people perceive Jaguars, not necessarily having driven our cars, which do they feel is the better performance brand from a sportiness point of view?

"Jaguar wants to be top of mind," he declares.

The tough-talking executive says Jaguar is "not miles away from that" but concedes there are obstacles to overcome.

"Obviously in sales there's something called BMW out there, there's actually something called Porsche, and from an image point of view we're trailing just behind those two. But we're making big strides moving forward in that area."

"The vision is not just to sell two million cars, it's about being focussed on that performance proposition," he said.

A large part of Jaguar's strategy to become the "world's performance car of choice" relies on its two-door sports car, the F-TYPE (pictured). Available in rear- and all-wheel drive, with supercharged V6 and V8 engines delivering between 250kW and 404kW, it's currently priced between $120K and $260K in Australia.

The plan is to aggressively expand F-TYPE variants moving forward and, like Porsche's 911 with its 20-plus variants, Jaguar wants to fill every single niche – and possibly create a few more.

"As you've picked up on the rumours, we're cooking up all the variants [for F-TYPE]. But if you say you're going to be the performance brand of choice, look at the 911 range or the Cayman range, there's a lot more there for selected buyers that we can still go at.

"Expect more to come," vowed De Ploey.

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