About this episode
British luxury brand Jaguar built its final combustion car in December last year, but it didn't necessarily have to be that way. In fact, the company had four new, next-generation cars in the pipeline before it decided to cancel all of them in favor of exclusively producing six-figure EVs. The revelation came through iconic former Jag designer Ian Callum, who worked for the automaker from 1999 to 2019 and was credited with evolving the brand from a company that made BMW and Mercedes alternatives that looked old-school on the day they were released to fresh but distinctive 3 Series and E-Class alternatives that looked modern without losing their sense of tradition. Four Next-Gen Jags Lost As "What-Ifs" We'll Likely Never See
Michael Harley/Autoblog
Jaguar's last new model was launched in 2018, a year before Callum left, and he wasn't idle in that year. Speaking on the Road to Success podcast, Callum said that he and his successor, Julian Thomson (who left in 2021, for the record), "created quite a lot of new Jaguars before I left" that were "all taken away." What were those, you ask? You can probably guess: replacements for the XF sedan (3 Series fighter), the XJ (S-Class alternative), and the brand's bestseller, the F-Pace SUV. Proof that Jaguar was fairly far along with these can still be found on X (formerly Twitter), where a split headlight design that looked very cat-like was being prepared for the XJ. It's been said that the stillborn electric XJ's platform found its way to the controversial Type 00, and that trying to update this for Jaguar's new goals is part of why it's been so heavily delayed.So the stillborn X360 Jaguar ‘XJ-E’ has leaked. I’m still after the studio launch photos…
