The word ‘Jaguar’ will start to be ditched from the back of production cars within two or three years, the Ford-owned luxury car maker’s design boss has confirmed.

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Ian Callum confirmed the famous name is going. It’s still on the boot lip of the XF – to be unveiled at next month’s Frankfurt show – but with it is a flattened version of Jaguar’s iconic big cat ‘leaper’.


“Eventually we will take the name off and just leave the leaper,” said Callum. “When people see the XF they won’t know what it is, so they will look for a name badge. That’s why we’ve left it on, but put the leaper there as well, The name will go probably on production cars within two or three years.”


As well as the rear of car – due to replace the S-Type early next year – Callum described the thinking behind the dramatically different front end.


“We went through 30-odd models and part of that was to look for a new face. We went through one new look with our show cars, such as the RD6, and because of that we were happy to let it go.”

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Callum said the objective on the XF’s grille was to create something that Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons could have penned, moving on from the XJ6 launched in 1968.


“That car was the first one to have the front grille as an air intake and we wanted to evolve that,” said the designer.


Callum explained how on some of the early XF sketches he had started off with four headlamp roundels – as on the current S-Type – but felt it wasn’t taking the design forward. After various revisions the same feature is still there, but inside a more modern shaped light cluster.


Callum also confirmed the nose of the XF wasn’t a one-off. “It’s styling that you’ll see on Jaguars more and more,” he added.