Rory Sutherland & Rawdon Glover - How Jaguar pulled off a design & engineering miracle
Uncensored CMOShow Notes
Last year, I sat down with Jaguar MD Rawdon Glover to unpack one of the most controversial rebrands in automotive history. Now, the car is real and I got a chance to ride around the test track in it. Joined by Rory Sutherland, we travelled to Jaguar’s HQ to experience the new car in prototype form. What followed was a conversation on whether this radical reinvention is genius or madness. We dive into the thinking behind the design, the disappearing trade-offs between performance and comfort, and why Jaguar is deliberately challenging convention. Rory brings his trademark perspective on behaviour and perception, including how to rethink “range anxiety” and what makes a product feel truly desirable. This is a rare look inside a brand attempting one of the boldest transformations in modern automotive history.
Timestamps 00:00 - Start 01:10 - What has gone into creating the new Jaguar? 04:00 - Balancing performance and comfort 05:43 - The power of choosing conflicting goals 07:51 - Why the new Jaguar is being tested on ice? 10:32 - How close is the concept car to the production car? 12:54 - Who is the target audience for the new Jaguar? 14:30 - The design process of the new Jaguar 18:41 - The Spirit of Jaguar Campaign 20:46 - Why the metrics for electric cars need to change 22:13 - Why the new Jaguar is a bargain at £130,000 25:34 - Will petrolheads like this car? 26:37 - Why electrification changes the paradigm of what’s possible 30:47 - Rory’s pitch for removing battery anxiety 33:08 - Why Ferrari and Lamborghini took different approaches to EVs 35:21 - Will the new Jaguar be a Waymo? 36:27 - How are Jaguar predicting demand for this car? 36:41 - How will Jaguar predict demand for the car? 37:57 - The marketing plan for the new Jaguar 40:57 - Is the residual value of electric cars a worry? 42:12 - Customisation options for the new Jaguar 46:03 - What would Rory do if he was in charge of Jaguar 49:26 - The decision behind the bold car colours
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