Opinion: Can a green pivot save the UK’s luxury car makers?

Jaguar and Bentley's announcements of a shift to electric-only line-ups bode well for their respective futures

We may be locked down again, but the UK car industry has not been sitting quietly at home streaming box sets. Huge strategic shifts have been put into action.

In the last few months Bentley has declared it will move to being an all-electric brand by 2030, Autocar revealed Rolls Royce is working on the ‘Silent Shadow’ EV and now Jaguar is to be completely re-invented as an EV brand from 2025.

All three moves are partly inspired by think-tanks and future-gazers who are convinced that there’s a new niche market on the near-horizon for ‘environmentally-friendly super-luxury’, for want of a snappier term. Gilt without guilt, you might say.

Of course both Jaguar and Bentley have struggled to become sustainably profitable over the last few years. 

Indeed, Bentley was publicly berated by members of the VW Group’s main shareholding families back in 2018 for not being constantly and sustainably profitable.

And 20 years of Jaguar trying, and substantially failing, to become a decent-selling alternative to the ubiquitous German executive saloon also has to be the primary factor in this latest reinvention. In truth, Jaguar had nowhere else to go. And perhaps Bentley didn’t either.

But these two British brands may yet have a solid future by getting on to the beginning of a new trend, rather than struggling to make headway from a tiny base in the mainstream premium and luxury markets.

And while I doubt Rolls Royce’s position is under much examination at the BMW headquarters, even it is having to steer into what appears to be the prevailing wind.

Industry watchers with a really good memory might remember Aston Martin fired the opening shots in the coming Green ultra-luxury war with a Lagonda concept at the 2018 Geneva show.

The electric Lagonda Vision Concept was intended to take advantage of a pure-EV platform to completely re-think the architecture of a traditional luxury interior, a futuristic alternative to what Aston called ‘old-world’ luxury.

Aston’s chief creative officer, Marek Reichman made an unusually direct attack on Rolls-Royce as representing ‘old luxury’ and said time was running out for what he called ‘Buckingham Palace on wheels’. It was an extra-wounding outburst because Reichman was on the design team for the original Phantom.

Of course Rolls-Royce didn’t much care for Reichman’s challenge and the Lagonda plans disappeared with Aston’s change of ownership, but that didn’t mean the thinking behind the Lagonda was wrong.

Indeed, three years ago there was plenty of research around pointing to a significant shift in the ‘ultra-luxury’ sector, insisting the days of  ever more ‘wood and leather’ are probably coming to a close. 

Back in 2017 the Trendwatch consultancy made this prescient observation: ‘Millions of affluent consumers feel trapped in a guilt spiral when it comes to the negative impacts – on the environment, society and their health – of their consumption. The real luxury for these consumers? Indulgence without the guilt.’

So don’t expect the future Jaguar and Bentley models to have leather interiors (Mini has already said leather will not be available on the next-generation of cars) or interiors made substantially of (oil-derived) moulded plastics. Wood is OK as it is, by definition, sustainable but expect some innovative uses. 

Indeed, a great example of the work now going into the guilt-free ultra-luxury EV has just been announced by Bentley. It is working with a number of outside companies in a project to recover rare earth magnets from places such as old computer drives and re-purpose them for ancillary electric motors. The company also has a research project to design ‘e-axle electric powertrains’ which are also free of rare-earth magnets.

The Bentley research is, incidentally, being part-funded by public money through the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles. British carmakers are plunging into sustainable, recycled, low-emissions ultra-luxury, supported by Government policy.

With a giant battery factory planned for Blyth in the North East and the owners of Coventry Airport pitching for a government grant to build another, it seems the luxury end of the UK industry is now on a radically new heading. 

Let’s hope that the market for guilt-free six-star transport will be as healthy as the trend-spotters insist.

*READ MORE*

*Official: Government to ban new petrol and diesel car sales in 2030*

*Jaguar to become all-electric brand from 2025*

*Bentley to switch to electric vehicle-only range in 2030*