A ‘Made in China’ crisis awaits big auto
Jaguar’s “copy nothing” brand reboot hit late last year, one self-styled car enthusiast replied on X: “What the actual hell is this.” Jaguar’s response: “The future.” That remains to be seen. But the ad, unfamiliar and unsettling, does at least work as a portent of what’s coming for the global auto industry.
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Jaguar, a storied but struggling British brand owned by India’s Tata Motors Ltd., shred its existing traditions with a 30-second video long on po-faced models but with no sign of an actual car. It all heralded a new direction — high-end electric vehicles — with a concept, the Type 00, revealed in Miami shortly thereafter. If the idea was to draw attention, albeit often apoplectic, it worked. Even Elon Musk reacted.
It’s a time for radical moves in autos. Just before the Type 00 unveiling, news broke that both Stellantis NV’s chief executive and Nissan Motor Co.’s finance chief were abruptly departing. A few weeks before, Volkswagen AG had announced the seemingly unthinkable: Closing auto plants in Germany (it later agreed with unions to keep them open but reduce capacity). A little earlier, Ford Motor Co. touted what felt like its millionth pivot on EVs. Not to be outdone, General Motors Co. closed out last year with a trifecta: A $5 billion write-down in China, the sale of its stake in a US battery factory project, and the sudden closure of its in-house robotaxi arm, Cruise.
