Jaguar F-Type R - long-term review

That’s it. Since I wrote my last report, Jaguar announced that production of the F-Type in Castle Bromwich has ended. RIP. The final car will join the last XE, XF and XF Sportbrake in the official Jaguar Heritage collection, and Jag is still committed to becoming “an all-electric luxury brand by 2025”. And yet, we’re now told that the next EV (a £100k four‑door GT) won’t be revealed until next year. Slightly worrying.

The E-Pace crossover and the I-Pace EV are both on the chopping block too. They’re both currently built in Austria but will cease production in December 2024. The F-Pace will soldier on for a while yet though, being built in Solihull and in China.

Jag bosses concede that its efforts to compete with (and sell as many cars as) the Germans failed, and so its future EVs will be ultra-premium and shouldn’t need to sell in as great a number.

“We got into the point where volume became the predominant,” said JLR boss Adrian Mardell on an investors’ call in July. “No longer the case. Value, value, value. We are not in mass premium. We tried to get into mass premium, that didn’t work too well.”

And yet, the F-Type was perhaps the exception to that rule. Particularly those with stonking great V8 engines and hefty price tags like our R. Jag built almost 90,000 F-Types in total, and it’s not just us that reckons it should retain a sports car/GT in its lineup…

“The F-Type has been an iconic model for Jaguar, embodying the spirit and performance of our brand,” said Matthew Gurney, general manager of west London JLR. “We will certainly miss it, as it has played a significant role in our lineup and in the hearts of our customers.

“The F-Type has been a significant draw for our retailers. As we transition into an all-electric future, we believe that maintaining a sports car in our lineup would be essential. An electric sports car would allow us to combine Jaguar’s heritage of performance and style with cutting-edge technology and sustainability. It’s an exciting prospect, and we look forward to what the future holds.”

Let’s just hope that future doesn’t take too long to materialise. Oh, and don’t worry, we only paid a visit to the dealership to get an idea of what those selling Jaguars every day thought of the future plans. The F-Type itself hasn’t put a foot wrong over its first 4,000 miles.

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