Jaguar will stop designing station wagons. Instead, the company will reset its focus on crossover vehicles, which are quickly growing in popularity throughout the world.
Ian Callum, design chief at Jaguar, said that the company will cease its activities in the luxury sport wagon market and set its sights on crossovers.
Ian Callum: Jaguar Won't Do Any More Station Wagons https://t.co/PKNaYHOUbe pic.twitter.com/yr0Wjyz2tR
— Car and Driver (@CARandDRIVER) April 19, 2016
“I’m very sad about it but it’s a very difficult market to justify,” Callum said during an event for the F-Pace crossover vehicle, in a report by Automotive News.
Callum, a fan of wagons himself, admitted that the wagon market is getting smaller quickly. He feels sad about Jaguar, a British brand, having to move away from the market.
He continued that the biggest wagon market in the world is German, but Germans prefer to buy German cars. He was referring to German brands Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which offer wagon variants of their basic sedan models in Europe.
The United Kingdom is the second biggest market in Europe. However, British customers are not too inclined on purchasing station wagons compared to their German, Swiss and Austrian counterparts.
Station wagons only sell in huge numbers in Europe, but there is a noticeable shift of preference towards SUVs, in terms of family transportation, according to Road and Track. It was a sensible and financially strategic move for Jaguar to move on to the crossover and SUV market instead of staying hopeful that the wagon market would improve in time.
Andy Goss, sales and marketing head of Jaguar Land Rover, said at the F-Pace launch that wagons are not strong in the United States and China, although SUVs are strong in almost every part of the globe.
Automotive News reveals that Jaguar previously offered only two wagon variants. The first is a wagon version of the X-Type midsize sedan that released in 2004 while the second is a wagon version of the previous-generation XF large sedan that launched in 2012. When the XF Sportbrake wagon was introduced in 2012, wagons comprised about 30 percent of the large premium car market in Europe, according to Jaguar.
In the meantime, Callum expects the F-Pace crossover vehicle to become Jaguar’s best-selling car yet, moving past the XJ sedan and X-Type in the process. There are also rumors that Jaguar is already planning to work on a smaller SUV next.
Ian Callum teased that Jaguar will continue to do things that will surprise customers although these will no longer involve wagons. More updates and details are expected soon.
See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?
