Have you ever wondered why one of the most jarring trends in the automotive scene today is the enlargement of the radiator grille? Well, according to Jaguar design boss Julian Thomson, it’s because car companies are deliberately trying to develop future design languages with “big considerations towards China,” CarThrottle reports.
“China’s a first generation of car owners, or second-generation now, and they have been quite brand obsessed, [but] not knowing what brand was what. So a lot of manufacturers have reacted to this by doing very strong faces on their cars, just to get known,” Thomson explained.
Like many who are put off by big radiator grilles, Thomson isn’t particularly a fan of this design direction, which a lot of car brands have taken. “I feel some of our competitors have gone really overboard in trying to overemphasise the brand, the face of the car, and in a fairly crude manner in a lot of cases.” He even went as far as to say that these brands are “doing faces only a mother could love.”
With Thomson leading the pack, he pledges that Jaguar will not “torture the metal” in the same manner which others have done, ever. To stand out in the world’s largest auto market, he said “premium brands like ourselves do need to have design languages that are much more cohesive and recognisable, but at Jaguar we’re not going to be funky, we’re not going to do these big faces… We’ve really got to make sure Jaguar has some real integrity and civility about it.”
Hence the new F-Type. Sure, the front face is sleeker and more attention-grabbing than before, and the grille is evidently larger as well. Thomson said it’s as big as Jaguar will go for now, “but ask me again in a few years,” he said. So, what do you guys think of big grilles?
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Do EV cars then you won’t need to have big grilles. The big question, can you still afford to move into EV tech while tethering on bankruptcy?
Proton invented Infinite Weave grille more subtle.
Others are making money while Jag is near bankruptcy. Yep, we know whom is heading in the right direction and some other is going down the footnote of automotive history for bucking the trend.
Thats BS la, if that’s the case they can just create big grilles just for chinese market, the rest of the world can have a different design.
Not cost effective.
BMW doesn’t seem to have a cost problem when they develop and sold XWB Beemers only in China market….
big mouth is invented by audi i suppose and copied by lexus and etc
No….lancer was the one on passenger car…
Big grills can be nice if done properly.
More Aston Martin and less Lexus please
To be honest, I think people look at the overall design/style of the car and not just by grill size. As much as it is a trend nowadays but I have to say most of them do have the more fierce and aggressive look to it. However, that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to follow that trend. If Jaguar can come up with ideas that will still look great, why not?
https://paultan.org/2020/02/03/2020-hyundai-creta-to-make-its-debut-in-india-on-feb-6
Here is one that is just ugly all around and not simply due to the big grille.
Fun fact is all this while Jaguar car grille is already bigger than some of the well known brand…
Ok, no big grilles.
Jaguar will do big nostril, big ear or big eyes instead?