Jaguar XJ to be replaced, confirms design boss

Jaguar’s design chief Ian Callum has confirmed the XJ will be replaced and additional model lines, rather than new bodystyles of existing cars, are being investigated.

Talking about a new XJ, he said: “We’re looking at that now, and other things, too – other car lines, additional ones. [We’ll] continue to grow.”

Callum, speaking to Autocar UK at the recent Los Angeles motor show, wouldn’t be drawn on precisely where the growth would come from but did say capacity issues would stunt any immediate new models.

“The reality is a capacity issue. It’s the biggest restraint,” he said.

Jaguar Land Rover’s annual sales should reach full capacity of around 650,000 units across its three UK factories once the Jaguar XE and F-Pace and models are fully ramped up. A further factory is due to open in Slovakia in 2018.

“JLR doesn’t want to be BMW or Audi in size,” he said. “Chasing volume relentlessly is a problem. We don’t have aspirations for more than a million a year between us. You can lose prestige.”

Callum said Jaguar is unlikely to follow BMW or Audi in making multiple bodystyles of the same car but will instead look at adding more model lines.

“We’d like to do more volume of the cars we’ve got. That’s where growth will come from: additional lines,” Callum said.

When asked about a model smaller than the XE, Callum said his team were “continuously talking about a smaller Jaguar” but added there was “nothing planned” for a production model. He also ruled out a return of the XK.

As for the XJ, Callum believes the design of the current car “still stands out on its own. People think it’s brand new if they haven’t seen it before”. He hinted that there was a push within the company to make the next XJ more practical, but he believed it should still major on style.