Otto Explains — Brand History
The History of Jaguar
Short Answer
Jaguar began in 1922 as the Swallow Sidecar Company, founded in Blackpool by William Lyons and William Walmsley. It became SS Cars, first used the Jaguar name on a car in 1935 and became Jaguar Cars in 1945. After years inside British Motor Holdings and British Leyland, Jaguar was floated in 1984, bought by Ford in 1989 and by Tata Motors in 2008. In October 2026 it revealed the electric Type 01 as the first car of a new era.
How did Jaguar begin?
Jaguar’s story starts with motorcycle sidecars. In Blackpool, William Walmsley had designed and built a sidecar of his own, and his young neighbour William Lyons, a keen motorcyclist, persuaded Walmsley’s father that making them could be a real business. The two founded the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922: Walmsley ran manufacturing, while Lyons looked after advertising and administration. Swallow soon moved on from sidecars to building bodies for other makers’ cars, and in 1928 the firm left Blackpool for Foleshill in Coventry, the city that would be Jaguar’s home for most of the century.
How did Swallow become SS Cars?
Lyons wanted cars of the company’s own design. In 1931 he arranged for the Standard Motor Company to build a chassis to Swallow’s design, fitted with Standard engines, and the cars were sold as SS models. SS Cars Limited was incorporated on 10 October 1933. Walmsley did not share Lyons’ ambitions for the company: he resigned at its first annual general meeting on 28 November 1934, and Lyons bought his shares and took sole charge. In September 1935, at the Mayfair Hotel in London, SS launched the SS Jaguar 2½ Litre Saloon, the first model to carry the Jaguar name.
When did the company become Jaguar Cars?
During the Second World War the company repaired battle-damaged Whitley bombers. On 23 March 1945 Lyons announced that SS Cars would be renamed Jaguar Cars, and Jaguar Cars Limited became the main operating company in April that year. Peace brought rapid growth: the XK engine arrived in 1948, and in the early 1950s Jaguar moved from Foleshill to a larger factory at Browns Lane, Coventry, a former Daimler shadow factory. The decade also brought five Le Mans wins, and in 1956 William Lyons was knighted.
How did Jaguar grow into a group of its own?
In May 1960 Jaguar bought the Daimler Company, with its Radford factory in Coventry, from the BSA Group, so the Daimler name became part of Jaguar. More purchases followed: Guy Motors in 1961, the engine maker Coventry Climax in 1963 and Henry Meadows in 1964. In 1961 the E-type was launched in Geneva. For a few years Jaguar was a small independent group under Sir William Lyons’ direction.
How did Jaguar end up in British Leyland?
Independence did not last. In July 1966 Jaguar merged with the British Motor Corporation (BMC) to form British Motor Holdings (BMH), and in January 1968 BMH merged with Leyland to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation. The XJ6 was launched within the new group on 26 September 1968. Sir William Lyons retired in 1972, handing over to F. R. W. ‘Lofty’ England, and by 1 January 1973 Jaguar Cars Limited no longer operated as a company in its own right. British Leyland was effectively nationalised in 1975, and in 1978 the division containing Jaguar was renamed Jaguar Rover Triumph.
How did Jaguar become independent again, and then part of Ford?
In 1984 British Leyland sold Jaguar, including Daimler, through a public share issue on the London Stock Exchange, creating Jaguar Cars plc. Sir William Lyons died in February 1985. Jaguar returned to winning ways at Le Mans in 1988, but its independence was short: in December 1989 Jaguar Cars plc accepted an offer from Ford and became a wholly owned Ford subsidiary. Under Ford, Jaguar joined the Premier Automotive Group alongside Land Rover, Aston Martin and Volvo and widened its range with the S-TYPE of 1998 and the compact X-TYPE of 2001. The historic Browns Lane factory closed in 2006.
How did Tata Motors come to own Jaguar?
On 2 June 2008 Tata Motors bought the Jaguar Land Rover businesses from Ford for a net US$2.3 billion, and Jaguar and Land Rover have been part of one company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, ever since. That company, JLR, now presents itself as a House of Brands with four brands: Range Rover, Defender, Discovery and Jaguar.
Why is Jaguar changing now?
On 15 February 2021 JLR announced its Reimagine strategy, under which Jaguar would become an all-electric luxury brand from 2025, future Jaguars would be built only on a pure electric architecture, and the planned replacement for the XJ would not go ahead. In April 2023 JLR said the first of these cars would be a four-door GT built in Solihull on its own architecture, called JEA. In 2024 the petrol range wound down: F-TYPE production ended at Castle Bromwich, the last XE and XF had been built, and a special edition marked the final F-PACE model. The plan took longer than first announced. On 7 October 2026 Jaguar revealed the Type 01, a four-door electric GT designed, engineered and built in the UK, and the first production Jaguar on JEA. Jaguar expects orders to open in early 2027 and first deliveries in the second half of 2027. Jaguar presents it as ‘a copy of nothing’, a phrase taken from Sir William Lyons. The earlier Type 00, shown in Jaguar’s new-era material, is a non-production vehicle.
What does this history mean for Jaguar owners today?
Most Jaguars on the road come from the Ford and Tata years, with petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric power, and each generation is engineered differently. If you are buying an older Jaguar, a pre-purchase inspection shows the condition of that particular car better than its badge or its history can. If you are weighing an electric Jaguar against a hybrid, Otto’s guide to hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars explains the differences. At AutoTronix, Garage looks after mechanical work, Lab handles diagnostics and electronics, and PERFORMANCE covers high-performance models.
Common Questions
- Who founded Jaguar? William Lyons and William Walmsley, who founded the Swallow Sidecar Company in Blackpool in 1922. Walmsley left in 1934, and Lyons led the company until he retired in 1972.
- Who owns Jaguar today? Jaguar is one of the four brands of JLR, which has been a wholly owned subsidiary of India’s Tata Motors since Tata bought it from Ford in 2008.
- When was the Jaguar name first used? On the SS Jaguar 2½ Litre Saloon, launched in September 1935. The company itself was renamed from SS Cars to Jaguar Cars in 1945.
- Does Jaguar still make petrol cars? Jaguar described the 2024 F-PACE 90th Anniversary Edition as the final F-PACE model, and F-TYPE production ended in 2024. Its next car, the electric Type 01, is expected to open for orders in early 2027. What is still available new varies by market, so check with the authorised Jaguar retailer.
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