The UK Automotive Industry and the EU

have about the same CO2 or in some cases even lower CO2 than a diesel car.” said Peter Mock, EU Managing Director at the International Council for Clean Transportation.

– Threatened by the Brexit

We can also explain this decline in performance of the UK automotive market, by the vote in favour of the Brexit. Indeed, until May 2016, the British market showed a progress of more than 4% in comparison with the year before. But the slowing down of growth appeared after the vote, the 23th June 2016. The Brexit would bring about a rise in costs which could penalize both manufacturers and buyers. Tariff barriers set up by the Brexit would be harmful to UK automotive industry since a large part of vehicles assembled in UK depend on a stream of parts through frontiers.

Jaguar in the UK

The UK automotive market is the 2nd luxury vehicles producer in the European Union after Germany. Indeed, the country is the birthplace of many luxury cars brands since the 19th century.
Jaguar is one the first British car manufacturer. It is known as the emblematic supplier of the British Queen for four decades. This brand was created in 1922 as the Swallow Sidecar Company. It was recognized as the Jaguar Company only in 1940. Jaguar is part of the Indian Tata Motors group since 2008. The operations of Jaguar and those of Land Rover were merged to found in 2013 Jaguar Land Rover. The company insists on the fact that it has an international vision. More than 80% of the vehicles manufactured in the West Midlands are sent to 101 countries among which China, United States and Europe.
This luxury cars brand feel really threatened by the Brexit. A hard Brexit, would cost Jaguar £1.2 billion per year. This situation would force the company to reduce its activities in UK. To continue to flourish, the company need a free trade with the European Union and access to the single market without any restrictions. With the vote in favour of the Brexit, Jaguar already had to face up to an important drop in sales.
Jaguar has to cope with the competition, on that luxury vehicles market. On one hand, the brand has to compete with British brands like Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, Morgan, Lotus, etc. And one the other hand, with international luxury brands like Porsche, Toyota, Mercedes or Tesla for example.

Consumer trends in the British automotive market

In June 2018 the stock of licensed vehicles in UK rose by 1% in comparison with the previous year. Among the 38.2 million vehicles licensed, 31.5 million were cars. We can observe an annual increase every year since the end of the Second World War except in 2017 when the UK automotive market experienced an important decrease. Following this logic, we imagine that in 15 years, the number of cars sold in UK will be much more important than today and normally, the car market has a great future in UK. However, the most common cars bought at the end of 2017 in UK are the Ford Fiesta with 1.5 million cars, the Ford Focus with 1.3 million cars and the Vauxhall Corsa with 1.1 million. To better adapt the automotive market in UK, it is relevant to know that the number of women registered as keepers of cars, increased by 61% since 1997 while the proportion of men only increased by 22%. This detail is essential to Jaguar which has to take it into account for the future of its company. Maybe, creating a more adapted range of cars for the female population. Obviously, Jaguar has to keep its positioning of luxury sport cars brand but trying to think about all that women who also like sport cars but are looking for something more adapted for them in terms of design. The number of that women is more and more important.

Nevertheless, we notice a decline in the proportion of British young adults (between 17 and 20 years-old) with a driving license. This phenomenon is due to higher prices than 30 years ago, what discouraged young people from learning. But also this can be explained by the fact that the driving test became more difficult to pass. The British young adult’s attitude towards the driving license has changed too. Indeed, today a part of that population, clearly said that they aren’t interested by driving. This could be a threat for Jaguar because at some point this population will represent the Jaguar market‘s target.

However, the car in UK still remains the principal mode of transport, in particular for people’s daily travels. In 2017, 61% of trips were made by car. Indeed we can observe that on British roads, cars and taxis represent 78% of the all traffic. Especially to go to work, of the 26.5 million of workers in England and Wales, 16.7 million use a car that they drive themselves or they use the car sharing. In rural area, this percentage is quite important since it stands at 73.4%. Contrary to what we may think, for 29.8 % of the workers in London, the car is the most popular mode of travel.

Plaire aux individus sensibles aux questions environnementales

Increase the electric cars autonomy

Nowadays, more and more car brands develop electric vehicles whose purpose is to reduce atmospheric pollution, particularly high in developing world cities and greenhouse gas emissions, which remains the major cause of the average temperature increase.
The aim is to seduce people who are more and more aware of the environmental issues and of the negative effects that their car can have on the planet.
Jaguar is actually a late entrant into the electric car market, indeed, its first electric model, the I-Pace, had been launched in early 2018, while other brands, such as Renault, launched its Renault Zoé in 2012. However, it is the first brand to compete with Tesla on the field of high-end cars.

Jaguar could invest more in the search of electric batteries more autonomous. Indeed, even if its autonomy reaches 450 km, Tesla, its main competitor, offers a model with an autonomy of 600 km, that is 150 km more, which gives Tesla an enormous competitive advantage.
They also could work on the time the user needs to recharge the battery. Indeed, the fact of having to stop more than 45 minutes along the way can hamper prospects of purchasing this kind of product, especially for workers and company heads who spend a lot of time in their car.
The brand as well could develop its own charging network which would be allowed just for its clients and modernized it by inventing a wireless system to facilitate its use, following the example of the recharge of the QI mobile phone.

Despite of all the positive things that have being said about electric cars, recent studies have shown that this type of vehicle is not as “green” as it seems. Numerous elements such as the rare materials extraction and the electricity generation needed to produce this kind of car has a real ecologic impact tarnish its ecological balance, sometimes worse than a petrol or diesel car,
, Jaguar pourrait se tourner vers d’autres alternatives

Si cet élément est amené à disparaître car encore trop polluante, se tourner vers d’autres alternatives.

Une autre alternative, l’essence synthèse ?

Utilisation d’essence de synthèse qui présente de nombreuses qualités : un carburant sans pétrole, neutre en Co2. Des projets pilotes sont déjà mis en place par des marques concurrentes comme Audi et non pas les voitures électriques qui n’ont pas beaucoup d’autonomie et qui ne sont pas si verts que ça, on utilise en effet des matériaux exotiques et rares dont l\’exploitation n\’est pas sans dommage pour l\’environnement.

Create a range of car with vegan materials

To meet their clients and prospects needs, Jaguar has to follow very closely the British lifestyle changes and keep an eye on emerging trends, especially among young people who are tomorrow\’s adult consumers.

In the United Kingdom, the veganism is a trend that has grown significantly over the past few years, especially since 2016. It is one of the country in the world where this practice is more developed. Between 2006 and today, the number of vegans in this country rose by 360%, which represents 7% of the British, or more than 3.5 million people. This percentage is even higher among the 16 – 24 age group, indeed, 20% identify themselves as vegan. At this rate, we can easily imagine that this percentage will increase in a meaningful way in the next five or ten years. It would be a shame not to take advantage of this phenomenon, which is on the rise from year to year.

What Jaguar could do to meet this demand would be to create a range of car especially for vegan people, indeed, their “fight” concerns not only food, it is based on the refusal of animal exploitation in all its forms. For instance, most of them do not wear clothes or use cosmetic products whose components have been obtained from animals, like fur, leather, wool or silk. This is what we want to do with Jaguar. The brand could replace its traditional leather seats, wheel and gear lever for appropriate solutions for this category of persons, use other components which would approach aesthetically and qualitatively its already existing cars. They could for example use “muskin” leather, a biodegradable material extracts from the mushroom cap. Moreover, this skin already used for the manufacture of bags, belts, watch straps and shoe soles, do not use any chemical substance and is a non toxic product.
They could take inspiration from its main competitor, Tesla, which has stopped using genuine leather for synthetic leather for all its car seats since 2017.

Create a system for people who can not have access to car clubs services.

The mean problem with car clubs is that not everyone can have access to this system, indeed, only people from big cities can take advantage of it. In the United Kingdom, there is a lot of people who does not live in big cities such as London, Manchester or Glasgow. In order not to lose these prospective customers that represent several million people throughout the country, it would be advisable for the brand Jaguar to set-up a “car share” system. It would work exactly like house sharing, that is, sharing a luxury car between several persons, for a given period. Other brands have already bet on it, such as Japanese car manufacture, Nissan and its get & go Micra which offers since 2017, its own car share service. Jaguar could take the lead from Nissan and create its own online platform, a kind of social media, to contact the futur “carmates”, directly on their smartphone. It would allow identifying people who live close to each other and who have complementary needs. Indeed, to make this system works, users needs to be in the same area and have different timetable. People could share their car with friends, family, colleagues or even complete strangers. The more persons there are, the lower the price, however for a question of organisation, the number of people who could rent the car, should not exceed five. This app would also allow people organize themselves

This would give people the opportunity to use a luxury car while reducing the total car of ownership which represents all the ancillary costs such as the insurance, the assistance, which would be shared between all the users of the car.
Not to forget the luxury side of the car, Jaguar could include in the package, free options that people could use whenever they want, a kind of VIP card that would provide benefits to its clientele.
De plus les utilisateurs auraient la possibilité de
Offrir des options en plus comme une carte qui permet d’avoir un petit déjeuner ou une autre collation inclus dans le forfait

Autonomous car : why it represents the future of car industry.

We know that Jaguar is already working on a prototype of a driverless car, and we think they should continue this process, and even accelerate their research in order to be the leader of a promising market.
Self-driving car could change our whole way to move, and the way people and goods are transported. It is the entire car experience that will be changed.
But there will be lot of challenges and obstacles to overcome in terms of security for example and mostly because of customer perception.
Autonomous vehicles is going to be a very flourishing market in United Kingdom, and according to a study, is estimated to be worth £28bn in 2035 and to represent 31% of the market.
Obviously, these figures are only forecasts, and some factors such as prices and consumer expectations are likely to influence the figures.
Autonomous vehicles have many advantages such as security. In fact, a study conducted by Exton Consulting revealed that Self-driving car could divide by two the numbers of traffic accidents. It’s not a surprise when you consider that 90% of these accidents are in fact related to human error.
For Jaguar’s clients, who are mostly people with a high purchasing power and a consistent budget, time is money. They are often people with a very busy professional life. Self-driving cars will allow them to have a little bit of free time. This is not insignificant when you know that British people most spend an average of 10 hours every week driving.
It represents 274 hours each year. So many hours which could be used differently. With you car doing all the driving, you will have all free time to work, talk to your loved-ones …
We all know that environmental issues are more and more important and will have a major influence on the future of the car industry. It’s a real challenge to respond to all the environmental issues. More than just a trend, it’s a true market demand.
Autonomous cars will be beneficial for the environment, first of all because of their more efficient driving style. Indeed autonomous vehicles provide a smoother and a more fuel effective driving. Furthermore, many autonomous vehicles are designed to be electric. The combination of these two characteristics shows that such vehicles would benefit the environment. Moreover, this type of vehicles will, if it replaces those of today, improve the traffic flow, which means less congestion on the road and less and therefore less pollution.
Autonomous vehicles could really be an opportunity for Jaguar, indeed, many of their customers are seniors and such vehicles will improve their mobility. It will be safer for them, and for those who have travel restrictive medical conditions ( like former Jaguar’s owners too old to drive ), it could be a real solution.
Nowadays, Jaguar’s vehicles are viewed as expensive, owned by wealthy people.
Most people do not even consider having a Jaguar because these vehicles are perceived as inaccessible. But with autonomous vehicles, the total cost of ownership will be less important and it will be more affordable to own a Jaguar.
Car insurance, for example, will be less expensive. Indeed, most of insurance are determined by human factor, and a reduction in the accidents ( As we said before, 90% of car accidents result from human mistakes ) will lower the cost of car insurance and make vehicle ownership more bearable.
And it can be verified : today the UK insurance industry offers a 10% discount for drivers who have a collision avoidance system.
It’s crucial to communicate about the total cost of ownership, because financial costs and benefits are the main factor in the purchase process in the UK. And the Columbia University Earth Institute estimates that the cost of a fully autonomous car would be about 41 cents per mile, when normal vehicles have a total cost of 75 cents per mile. And it’s a real opportunity for Jaguar, because it’s the households with the highest income who will benefit more from this lower cost of ownership, because of their higher driving distances. And it’s precisely these households that are targeted by Jaguar.
Furthermore, low-emission vehicles can have a plug-in grant in the UK, and we can assume that autonomous vehicles will also be eligible for a grant. Indeed, autonomous vehicles will help improve traffic flow. There is also another improvement that could convince the government to grant a financial help to the autonomous vehicles acquisition. Such vehicles will free up parking spaces, because cars will be able to park themselves outside of congested areas.
The UK is already getting ready to autonomous vehicles arrival, and they have a real desire to have a pioneering role in this market, in order to get ahead of their european rivals. To do so, they are already working on special laws, as old ones have to be adapted to new issues such as responsibility in case of an accident. The UK government has also authorized autonomous vehicles in UK roads in 2021. UK is ready to be a pioneer, and Jaguar should be too.

2. New services

Nowadays, the automotive industry is in constant change. These changes are the results of two factors: a global ecological awareness and the rising cost of car ownership. Moreover, the traditional way of owning a car is slowly becoming outdated and challenged by the popularity of a new sharing economy. That is why, in the last few decades new alternatives have appeared to reduce the cost of ownership in the car industry but also to reduce its environmental impact. These alternatives reconsider our whole traditional way to own cars mainly through sharing and renting cars services.
Among these services there are two emergent services:
Car sharing clubs
Ride sharing

Car sharing clubs:

Car sharing clubs are one of the most important change in our way to use cars. In the United Kingdom, there is an increasing number of cars on the roads but drivers are looking for a more flexible and economical use of cars. That is why car-sharing services such as car clubs are emerging fast. Thus, approximately 250,000 people are members of car sharing clubs in the United Kingdom. Car club is a popular service across the United Kingdom but a lot of clubs are based in big cities such as London, Manchester, Liverpool or Edinburgh, neglecting the countryside. The concept of car sharing clubs is simple and has the advantage of costing less than the cost of owning a personal car. Indeed, by temporarily hiring a car, drivers avoid all fees associated with buying, running and repairing a car. Usually, to rent a car, users have to register on a car sharing club’s website or app. According to the company, fees can be paid either daily, weekly, monthly or annually. Renting a car through car clubs costs between £4.50 and £7.50 an hour. Car clubs’ cars can be collected from various location and returned when and where the driver wants. Drivers just have to search a car on a car club website or app, choose the nearest location to collect the vehicle and then park back the car at a chosen location.
A pioneer actor in the car sharing and hiring industry is Zipcar that has more than 2,000 cars parked across the United Kingdom. Services such as Zipcar give drivers a lot of flexibility to use a car accordingly to their needs and budget. It’s an alternative for people that occasionally need a car but don’t want or can’t buy one.

Yet, even if it doesn’t include the act of buying a vehicle, car clubs are an opportunity for car manufacturers. Recently, groups such as Ford or BMW have invested or acquired already existing car clubs. Recently, a few brands such as BMW have created their own platform of car rental that offer driver the possibility to rent a BMW car. Thus, investing in the car sharing industry is a real opportunity for car manufacturer. It could enable brands such as Jaguar to reach a wider range of the population looking for a unique driving experience in specific cars. Exclusive cars could be proposed to rent for several hours or days. The cost of renting such a car as a Jaguar would be a bit more expensive than hiring a normal one but it could permit drivers to discover Jaguar’s cars as if it were their own.
This idea of creating a rental platform could give car industrials a direct link with drivers that share values with the brand and that are passionate about luxurious cars even if they can’t afford it. Thanks to car clubs, Jaguar’s expertise would be within the reach of everybody, particularly younger population that are important actors of this new sharing economy. Providing cars to rent could enable Jaguar to attract and win the loyalty of a brand new audience without distorting its brand image. It could show that the brand is evolving at the market pace, adapting its offer to the new consumer needs.

Ridesharing:

The ride-sharing market (or ride-hailing market) is a growing market today all over the world. And the UK is no exception to it. Currently, the ride-hailing market in the UK is dominated by Uber. In 2018, there are 3.5 million Londoners using the app. Purchasing a car was once considered a rite of passage, however, studies are showing car ownership has declined over the years, particularly among the millennials. This represents a serious opportunity for any car manufacturer who has a strategy of acknowledgement of the need to listen to customers’ growing expectations, and aiming to develop new services and wanting to stay close to the market trends. This is also, as we said, a strategy that should be taken into account when a company wants to target more efficiently millennials: indeed, today it appears that in addition of owning less and less cars, this generation favores ride-sharing.
The sharing and digital economies are in full swing, and this is why any car manufacturer should take advantage of it. And this is what BMW just did (and they have been successful in doing it) in the US. In 2018, BMW launched its free-floating ridesharing program, ReachNow. ReachNow was until recently just a car-sharing service available in Seattle and Portland in the US, and decided to expand into ridesharing in the city of Seattle in July 2018. The drivers are full-time employees (hired by third-party transportation companies), and passengers can customize their ride when they order a car: car temperature, radio station and even the driver\’s level of chattiness. The cost, at $2.40 per mile plus 40 cents a minute, is catering to a luxury conscious consumer base. The app aims to be the most convenient way to get from Point A to Point B, and each choice providing a consistent BMW brand experience. With this app, we can say that BMW clearly understood people\’s preferences on the US market, as well as the fact that car ownership in big cities is declining in favor of services like Uber or Lyft for example. And in this way, BMW was certainly right to launch this service, and is now trying to position itself at an advantage with this demographic in the future.

Why is car-pooling not an option for Jaguar?

When looking at the services that could work for Jaguar on the UK market, it appeared that car-pooling was not an option to take into consideration. Indeed, how could Jaguar implement a car-pooling service even though car-pooling is not even working in the UK? In addition, car-pooling is not an option for Jaguar as it would distort its brand image (a luxury brand with styling cars). But even if Jaguar would like to change its positioning to be more accessible, car-pooling is not working in the UK for different reasons, and Jaguar could hardly change that. The first reason is a cultural element: individuals in continental Europe are more comfortable sharing space in their car with people they don’t know. They are more more collaborative and community-oriented people than in the UK. And secondly, a research made by Blablacar in the UK has found that the British are anxious about their car insurance, worried about the fact that taking a passenger may void their coverage, given that car-pooling is not a for-profit activity. And this is not Jaguar that could change that.

B/ Recommandations:
-> A ride-hailing service for self-driving cars (self-driving cars that can pick up passengers) (Jeanne)

Ridesharing could be a serious opportunity to take into account for Jaguar in its approach to find new ways to diversify its offer and to find new markets. The only condition would be to take into consideration the fact that it has to be a luxury ridesharing service. Indeed, Jaguar can not offer its services to ‘Average Joe’, otherwise it could distort its brand image and create a problem about the brand’s positioning.
Continuing in BMW’s path, Jaguar could take advantage of it, but this time on the UK market. Designing its own app for a brand new ridesharing service could be an opportunity for Jaguar to reach millennials and even Generation Z drivers whose habits have been shaped by the transient economy built by Lyft, Uber and Airbnb.
However, after taking into account the different market trends, Jaguar should highly base its strategy on differentiating itself from the competition, and thus ensuring that it has a competitive advantage over others without changing its brand image and positioning. How? By combining both an innovative product that has not been yet democratized, and an existing service that is already part of people’s lives today. Indeed, Jaguar should develop a ride-hailing service for self-driving cars. This means that Jaguar would use this idea of creating an app for a ride-sharing service, but using new technologies in a different way by creating the very first app aimed at making available for people self-driving cars that can pick them up. Besides mixing two hot trends in the automotive industry, it would compete directly with Uber, but the major difference would be that Jaguar’s platform would be entirely made up of autonomous cars. In the same way, Jaguar could count on its brand image, as well as its reputation to sustainably enter the UK market, and could sell its new service as a chance to live a magical and unique experience for the passengers. This would be then a good opportunity to shake up the industry in a way that has never been seen before.
In addition, to continue with its luxury image, Jaguar will have with its app to offer several ride-hailing features in order to give a more personal experience. We can think of adding a mini-fridge in the car, or a TV, champagne, etc with the aim of making people using this service understand that it is a privilege, but at the same time that it is a more convenient way to get from one point to another. The interior would be designed for comfort with sofa-style seating, and it would also reflect Jaguar’s luxury image with a tea set, heated seats, and the autonomous cars used for this service would also have displays as it has become vital for people nowadays to always be connected, and these displays could also show travel information for the passengers, as we can find in airplanes for example. Moreover, the car would have 360-degree windows. In this way, it could be a great option to use these cars for luxury tourists who want to enjoy the city and the landscape at the same time as getting from point A to point B, and enjoying every service that this car would have to offer them.

-> A car club app (Manon):

Similarly to the service of ride-sharing, Jaguar’s new app could offer drivers the possibility to join a car club, dedicated to the rental of Jaguar cars.In this way, drivers that prefer driving themselves and that want to experience driving a Jaguar could have the opportunity to rent one through the app. As mentioned before, providing Jaguar’s cars to rent to Jaguar lovers could enable the brand to create a link and offer its expertise to a wider range of customers. It could also give Jaguar a competitive advantage on the automotive market in the United Kingdom as it will be one of the first luxurious car maker that adapts its offer to the new consumer’s needs by entering the sharing economy. To this extent, Jaguar could offer the rental of exclusive models so that this car sharing service could attract both customers and prospects. Indeed, by offering special models and encouraging drivers to try different cars, Jaguar could attract prospects that want to try new Jaguar cars but also customers that already have a Jaguar but that want to try latest models on the long term without having to support the cost of buying a new one. Jaguar’s app could offer special models for the United Kingdom with different features in order to suit different budgets while remaining a luxurious service. The brand could offer its simplest models but also more luxurious models with features such as fridge and TV as in the car sharing service.

On the same model than services like Zipcar or ReachNow, drivers would have to download the brand’s app, register on it, then search the car they want, for the duration they need, at the nearest location from them and finally they will just have to pay and unlock the car with the app thanks to the unlock button. Returning the car is as simple as taking it, the driver has to choose a car park and park the car there. All parks are managed by Jaguar and regroup the brand’s cars available for rental.
So as to keep the experience of driving a Jaguar unique and in adequation with the brand’s image, the rental service should be available in big cities where Jaguar is popular but also in wealthy countryside such as the south-east of the United Kingdom. The rental of a Jaguar should be limited to a week per customers to keep the uniqueness of the experience. Moreover, prices should be reflecting Jaguar’s brand image and be higher than average car rental prices. Packages per hour and per week could be offered according to the customer need of a short-term rental for a special event or a long-term rental for a trip for example.

In the end, offering drivers the possibility to rent a Jaguar could lead the brand to reach a wider range of the population and more particularly a younger range of the population than its actual target audience. Indeed, by adapting its strategy to the sharing economy with flexible car rental, Jaguar will enable new customers interested in the brand to experiment the ownership of luxurious car for a short-term at a competitive price. The future of car-ownership is uncertain and is certainly going to change for future generation. Car sharing and rental is probably going to be the preferred way to own a car in the future. That is why, starting to develop services in this new economy is probably the one of the best alternative for Jaguar to reach future consumers.

Conclusion:

In today’s economy, businesses need to understand consumer behaviour faster than ever before in order to remain competitive. Car manufacturers fully understand this, and know that they need to pinpoint changing buying habits so they can react accordingly. What is more, they need to know about the unseen opportunities and threats that they could face in the future.
In this way, our study about Jaguar aims at recommending the firm what it could do in the future based on various market opportunities that we see for the firm, and on the competition.
Another key element to take into account for Jaguar is that strong brand associations are deeply embedded in the minds of consumers, and thus that Jaguar, which is synonymous with luxury and exclusivity, should never launch a product or a service that does not fit its brand image.