| Company name | Jaguar Cars Limited |
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| Company logo | |
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| Company type | Private limited company |
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| Foundation | 11 September 1922 (as Swallow Sidecar Company), changed to Jaguar Cars Limited on 9 April 1945 |
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| Founder | Sir William Lyons and William Walmsley |
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| Owners | British Motor Holdings, 1966–1968, British Leyland Corporation, 1968-197x, Subsidiary, 19xx-198x, Subsidiary, 19xx-198x, Ford Motor Company, 19xx-198x |
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| Location city | Whitley, Coventry |
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| Location country | United Kingdom |
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| Key people | Ratan Tata (Chairman) Dr Ralf Speth (CEO) Adrian Hallmark (Global Brand Director) |
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| Industry | Automotive |
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| Products | Automobiles |
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| Num employees | 10,000 |
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| Owner | Tata Motors |
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| Parent | Jaguar Land Rover |
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| Homepage | |
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Jaguar Cars Ltd., known simply as Jaguar (), is a British luxury car manufacturer, headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England. A wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors Ltd., it is operated as part of the Jaguar Land Rover business.
Jaguar was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company by Sir William Lyons in 1922, originally making motorcycle sidecars before evolving into passenger cars. The name was changed to Jaguar after WWII to avoid the unfavourable connotations of the SS initials. Following a merger with the British Motor Corporation in 1968, subsequently subsumed by Leyland, which itself was later nationalised as British Leyland, Jaguar was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1984, and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Ford in 1989. Jaguar has, in recent years, manufactured cars for the Prime Minister, the most recent delivery being of a XJ model on 11 May 2010. The company also holds Royal Warrants from HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Charles.
Jaguar cars today are designed in Jaguar Land Rover's engineering centres at the Whitley plant in Coventry and at their Gaydon site in Warwickshire, and are manufactured in Jaguar's Castle Bromwich assembly plant near Birmingham.
History
Birth of the company
The
Swallow Sidecar Company was founded in 1922 by two motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and
William Walmsley. In 1935 the
SS Jaguar name first appeared on a 2.5 litre
saloon, sports models of which were the
SS 90 and
SS 100.
Cash was short after the Second World War and Jaguar sold to Rubery Owen the plant and premises of Motor Panels, a pressed steel body manufacturing company which had been acquired in the late 1930s when growth prospects had seemed more secure. Nevertheless, Jaguar achieved relative commercial success with their early post war models; times were also tough for other Coventry-based auto-makers and the company was able to buy from John Black's Standard Motor Company the plant where Standard had built the six-cylinder engines it had been supplying to Jaguar. Daimler - not to be confused with Daimler-Benz or Daimler AG - was purchased from the holding company BSA in 1960. From the late 1960s, its marque was used as a brand name for Jaguar's most luxurious saloons.
British Leyland
Jaguar merged with the
British Motor Corporation (BMC), the
Austin-
Morris combine, to form
British Motor Holdings (BMH) in 1966. After merging with
Leyland, which had already taken over
Rover and
Standard Triumph, the resultant company then became the
British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) in 1968. Financial difficulties and the publication of the
Ryder Report led to effective nationalisation in 1975 and the company became British Leyland, Ltd. (later simply BL plc).
In the 1970s the Jaguar and Daimler marques formed part of BL's specialist car division or Jaguar Rover Triumph Ltd until a restructure in the early 1980s saw most of the BL volume car manufacturing side becoming the Austin Rover Group, which didn't include Jaguar. In 1984, Jaguar was floated off as a separate company on the stock market – one of the Thatcher government's many privatisations.
Ford Motor Company era
based on the
Ford DEW98 platform]]
The Ford Motor Company made offers to the US and UK Jaguar shareholders to buy their shares in November 1989; Jaguar's listing on the
London Stock Exchange was removed on 28 February 1990. In 1999 it became part of Ford's new
Premier Automotive Group along with
Aston Martin,
Volvo Cars and, from 2000,
Land Rover.
Aston Martin was subsequently sold off in 2007. Between Ford purchasing Jaguar in 1989 and selling it in 2008 it did not earn any profit for the
Dearborn-based auto manufacturer.
Under Ford's ownership Jaguar expanded its range of products with the launch of the S-Type in 1999 and X-type in 2001. Since Land Rover's May 2000 purchase by Ford, it has been closely associated with Jaguar. In many countries they share a common sales and distribution network (including shared dealerships), and some models now share components, although the only shared production facility is Halewood, for the X-Type and the Freelander 2. However operationally the two companies were effectively integrated under a common management structure within Ford's PAG.
On 11 June 2007, Ford announced that it planned to sell Jaguar, along with Land Rover and retained the services of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and HSBC to advise it on the deal. The sale was initially expected to be announced by September 2007, but was delayed until March 2008. Private equity firms such as Alchemy Partners of the UK, TPG Capital, Ripplewood Holdings (which hired former Ford Europe executive Sir Nick Scheele to head its bid), Cerberus Capital Management and One Equity Partners (owned by JP Morgan Chase and managed by former Ford executive Jacques Nasser) of the US, Tata Motors of India and a consortium comprising Mahindra and Mahindra (an auto manufacturer from India) and Apollo Management all initially expressed interest in purchasing the marques from the Ford Motor Company.
Before the sale was announced, Anthony Bamford, chairman of British excavator manufacturer JCB had expressed interest in purchasing the company in August 2006, but backed out upon learning that the sale would also involve Land Rover, which he did not wish to buy. On Christmas Eve of 2007, Mahindra and Mahindra backed out of the race for both brands, citing complexities in the deal.
Tata Motors era
On 1 January 2008, Ford made a formal announcement which declared Tata as the
preferred bidder.
Tata Motors also received endorsements from the Transport And General Worker's Union (TGWU)-
Amicus combine as well as from Ford. According to the rules of the auction process, this announcement would not automatically disqualify any other potential suitor. However, Ford (as well as representatives of
Unite) would now be able to enter into detailed discussions with Tata concerning issues ranging from labour concerns (job security and pensions), technology (IT systems and engine production) and intellectual property, as well as the final sale price. Ford would also open its books for a more comprehensive
due diligence by Tata. On 18 March 2008,
Reuters reported that American bankers
Citigroup and
JP Morgan shall be underwriting a loan of USD 3
billion in order to finance the deal.
On 26 March 2008, Ford announced that it had agreed to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover operations to Tata Motors of India, and that the sale was expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2008. Included in the deal were the rights to three other British brands, Jaguar's own Daimler, as well as two dormant brands Lanchester and Rover. On 2 June 2008, the sale to Tata was completed at a cost of £1.7 billion.
Assembly plant
The Swallow Sidecar company (SSC) was originally located in
Blackpool but moved to Holbrook Lane,
Coventry in 1928 when demand for the
Austin Swallow became too great for the factory's capacity. In 1951, having outgrown the original Coventry site they moved to Browns Lane which had been a wartime "shadow factory" run by the
Daimler Motor Company. Today, Jaguars are assembled at
Castle Bromwich in
Birmingham and
Halewood in
Liverpool. The historic
Browns Lane plant ceased trim and final operations in 2005, the X350
XJ having already moved to Castle Bromwich two years prior, leaving the
XK and
S-Type production to Castle Bromwich and the
X-Type at Halewood, alongside the new Land Rover Freelander 2, from 2007. A reduced Browns Lane site operates today, producing veneers for Jaguar Land Rover and others, as well as some engineering facilities.
Cars
Current models
XJ
The
Jaguar XJ is a
full-size luxury saloon and the company's
flagship model. There has been an XJ in production since 1968 with the first generation being the last Jaguar car to have creative input by the company's founder,
Sir William Lyons. In early 2003, the third generation XJ arrived in showrooms and while the car's exterior and interior styling were traditional in appearance, the car was completely re-engineered. Its styling attracted much criticism from many motoring journalists who claimed that the car looked old-fashioned and barely more modern than its predecessor, many even citing that the 'Lyons line' had been lost in the translation from Mark 2 into Mark 3 XJ, even though beneath the shell lied a highly advanced aluminium construction that put the XJ to very near the top of its class.
Jaguar responded to the criticism with the introduction of the fourth generation XJ, launched in 2009. Its exterior styling is a departure from previous XJs, with a more youthful, contemporary stance, following the design shift that came into effect previously with the company's XF and XK models.
In the UK, XJ prices range from £55,500 for the XJ 3.0 V6 Diesel Luxury up to £94,000 for the XJ 5.0 V8 Supercharged Supersport LWB. The 5-litre V8 engine in the XJ Supersport can accelerate the car from in 4.7 seconds, and has a UK CO2 emission rating of 289 g/km. To cater to the limousine market, all XJ models are offered with a longer wheelbase (LWB) as an option, which increases the rear legroom.
XF
The
Jaguar XF is a
mid-size executive car introduced in 2008 to replace the out-going
S-Type in the company's line-up. In January 2008, the XF was awarded the
What Car? 'Car of the Year' and 'Executive Car of the Year' awards. The XF was also awarded Car of the Year 2008 from What Diesel? magazine. Engines available in the XF are a 3.0 litre
V6 diesel or petrol and a 5.0 litre V8 supercharged called the XFR, or naturally aspirated
V8 petrol, and - in the US - a 4.2L V8. Prices range from £29,900 to £62,600 in United Kingdom.
XK
The
Jaguar XK is a luxury
grand tourer introduced in 2006, where it replaced the Jaguar XK8. The XK introduced an aluminium monocoque bodyshell, and is available both as a two-door coupé and two-door
cabriolet/
convertible. The XK price ranges from £60,000 - £71,000 in United Kingdom.
R models
Jaguar began producing R models in 1995 with the introduction of the first XJR. Powered by a supercharged 6 cylinder engine, the car produced approximately 322 horsepower. With the revamped line of engines, the powerplant would be based on an eight-cylinder engine with supercharger from 1997 to present. The 1997–2003 XJR produced and of torque, taking the car to in just under 5.3 seconds. The new aluminium bodyshell from 2004 to 2009 and increased power to and enhanced computer systems decreased the time to to a little over 5 seconds.
Starting after year 2000, XJRs were equipped with Jaguar's CATS (Computer Active Technology Suspension) which helped firm up the ride in sporty driving without compromising comfort during day-to-day use.
The first XKR was introduced in 1997 and kept with the same power increases as the XJR except for after 2006 the power in the XKR was boosted to . The S-Type R had a short production run from 2003 to 2008, and came equipped with the same supercharged V8 as the other R models. It was replaced by the XFR, featuring a 5.0 L supercharged V8 producing .
Jaguar XFR - mid-size saloon
Jaguar XJR - full-size saloon
Jaguar XKR - coupé and cabriolet
Recent models
The
Jaguar S-Type, first appeared in 1999 and stopped production in 2008. It has now been replaced by the Jaguar XF. Early S-Types suffered from reliability problems but those were mostly resolved by the 2004 model year.
The Jaguar X-Type was a compact executive car launched in 2001, while the company was under Ford ownership. Sharing its platform with a 2000 Ford Mondeo, the X-Type lasted just one generation. The model ceased production in 2009.
Historical models
The Jaguar company started production with the pre-war 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 litre models which used engines designed by the Standard Motor Company. The 1.5 litre four-cylinder engine was still supplied by Standard but the two larger six-cylinder ones were made in house. These cars have become known unofficially as Mark IVs.
The first post war model was the 1948 Mark V available with either 2.5 or 3.5 litre engines and had a more streamlined appearance than pre-war models, but more important was the change to independent front suspension and hydraulic brakes.
was a breakthrough both for Jaguar and post-WWII sports cars]]The big breakthrough was the launch in 1948 of the XK120 sports car, powered with the new XK twin overhead camshaft (DOHC) 3.5 litre hemi-head six-cylinder engine designed by William Heynes, Walter Hassan and Claude Baily. This engine had been designed at night during the war when they would be on fire watch in the factory. After several attempts a final design was achieved. That is until owner William Lyons said "make it quieter". The car had originally been intended as a short production model of about 200 vehicles as a test bed for the new engine until its intended home, the new Mark VII saloon, was ready. The XK120's exceptional reception was followed in 1954 by the introduction of the derivative XK140, and a much revised XK150.
Jaguar launched E-Type in 1961.
Along with sports cars, Jaguar maintained a strong place in the upscale saloon car market. Introducing the large Mark VII in 1951, a car especially conceived for the American market, Jaguar was overwhelmed with orders. The Mark VII and its successors gathered rave reviews from magazines such as Road & Track and The Motor. In 1956 a Mark VII won the prestigious Monte Carlo Rally.
became one of the most recognisable Jaguar models ever produced]]
In 1955, the "2.4-Litre" saloon (subsequently known as the 2.4 Mark 1) was the first monocoque (unitary) car from Jaguar. Its 2.4-litre short-stroke version of the XK engine provided performance. In 1957, the 3.4-litre version with disk brakes, wire wheels and other options was introduced, with a top speed of . In 1959, an extensively revised version of the car with wider windows and 2.4, 3.4, and 3.8-litre engine options became the Mark 2. The 3.8 Mark 2 was popular with British police forces for its small size and performance.
The Mark VIII of 1956 and Mark IX of 1958 were essentially updates of the Mark VII, but the Mark X of 1961 was a completely new design of large saloon with all round independent suspension and unitary construction.
The independent rear suspension from the Mark X was incorporated in the 1963 S-Type which closely resembled the Mark 2, and in 1967 the Mark 2 name was dropped when the small saloon became the 240/340 range. The 420 of 1966, also sold as the Daimler Sovereign, put a new front onto the S-type, although both cars continued in parallel until the S-Type was dropped in 1968. The Mark X became the 420G in 1966.
, regarded by many as the definitive Jaguar saloon]]
Of the more recent saloons, the most significant is the XJ (1968–1992), still the definitive Jaguar saloon car for many. From 1968 on, the Series I XJ saw minor changes, first in 1973 (to Series II), 1979 (Series III), a complete redesign for 1986/1987 in XJ40, further modifications in 1995 (X300), in 1997 with V8-power (X308), and a major advance in 2003 with an industry-first aluminium monocoque-chassis (X350). The most luxurious XJ models carried either the Vanden Plas (US) or Daimler (rest of world) nameplates. In 1972 the 12-cylinder engine was introduced in the XJ, while simultaneously being offered in the E Type.
was the fastest production car in the world]]
1992 saw the introduction of the mid-engined, twin-turbo XJ220. Designed to compete head-on with the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959 supercars, the XJ 220 was powered by a V6 that propelled it to 350 km/h {217 mph}.
Complete line-up
1997–2005 XKR (X100)
2007-date XKR (X150)
Racing and competition
1950s C-Type
1950s D-Type
1960s E-Type Lightweight
1985–1992 XJR-5 through XJR-17
2009 Bonneville XFR
2010 Jaguar XKR GT2 RSR
Concept models
E1A - The 1950s E-Type concept vehicle
E2A - The Second E-Type concept vehicle which was used at LeMans and for racing in USA
Pirana (1967)
XJ13 - (1966) Built to race at LeMans, never run
XK180 (1998)
F-Type (2000) – Roadster, similar to the XK8 but smaller
R-Coupé (2002) – Luxury four-seater coupé
Fuore XF 10 (2003)
R-D6 (2003) – Compact four-seat coupé
XK-RR – A high-performance version of last generation XK coupé
XK-RS – Another performance-spec version of last generation XK convertible
Concept Eight (2004) – Super-luxury version of the long-wheelbase model of the XJ
C-XF (2007)
Jaguar C-X75 (2010)
Engines
Jaguar has designed in-house four generations of engines.
Historical engines:
* Jaguar XK6 engine – inline-6
* Jaguar V12 engine – V12
* Jaguar AJ6 engine – inline-6
* Jaguar AJ16 engine- inline-6
Current engines:
* Jaguar AJ-V8 engine – V8
* Jaguar AJ-V6 engine – V6
* Jaguar AJD-V6 engine - V6
Motorsport
:''See also:
Jaguar Racing and
Jaguar XJR Sportscars
being driven by
Mark Webber in 2004 - the team's last season in
F1.]]
The company has had major success in
sports car racing, particularly in the
Le Mans 24 Hours. Victories came in and with the
C-Type, then in , and with the
D-Type. The manager of the racing team during this period,
Lofty England, later became CEO of Jaguar in the early 1970s. Although the prototype
XJ13 was built in the mid-1960s it was never raced, and the famous race was then left for many years, until in the mid-1980s when
Tom Walkinshaw's
TWR team started designing and preparing Jaguar V12-engined sports prototypes for European sports car races. The team started winning regularly from 1987, and with increased factory backing the team won Le Mans in 1988 and 1990.
In the 1999, Ford decided that Jaguar would be the corporation's Formula One entry. Ford bought out the Stewart Grand Prix team and rebranded it as Jaguar Racing for the 2000 season. The Jaguar F1 program was not a success however, achieving only two podium finishes in five seasons of competition between and . At the end of 2004, with costs mounting and Ford's profits dwindling, the F1 team was seen as an unneeded expense and was sold to Red Bull energy drinks owner Dietrich Mateschitz, and it became Red Bull Racing. Since 2004 Jaguar has not had an official presence in motorsport.
Notable Jaguar sports racers:
Jaguar C-Type (1951–1953)
Jaguar D-Type (1954–1957)
Jaguar Lightweight E-Type
Jaguar XJR Sportscars
Jaguar XJR-9 (1988)
XJ220 (1988)
XJR-15 (1990)
Media profile
Inspector Morse (played by John Thaw) drives a 1960's Jaguar Mark series saloon in the long-running English television series based on novels by Colin Dexter.
Sean Connery drove and largely wrecked a Jaguar XK during a scene in his 1999 movie, Entrapment.
Electric vehicles
Lotus Cars joined Jaguar,
MIRA Ltd and
Caparo on a luxury
hybrid executive sedan project called "Limo-Green" — funded by the UK Government
Technology Strategy Board. The vehicle will be a series
plug-in hybrid.
References
External links
Official Jaguar Heritage web site
Category:Car manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Category:Coventry motor companies
Category:British brands
Category:Jaguar
Category:Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers
Category:Sports car manufacturers
Category:Motor vehicle manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Category:Companies established in 1922
Category:Companies based in the West Midlands (county)
Category:British Royal Warrant holders
Category:Luxury brands
Category:1922 establishments in the United Kingdom
