Just because autonomous cars are expected to become daily drivers for a lot of people one day, that doesn’t mean traditional, performance-driven cars are going to become obsolete in the future. That’s the sentiment expressed by Jaguar Land Rover’s head of product strategy, Hanno Kirner. According to Kirner, enthusiast-centric cars could still thrive amidst the changing landscape of the industry, largely because interest in them will never go away.

Human Drivers in an Autonomous World?

Driver’s cars will never go out of style. That’s been the case for as long as performance cars have existed, and that’s going to be the case for as long as they’re around. For its part, Jaguar Land Rover is set up to continue delivering these types of cars, even if autonomous cars start becoming more and more a part of people’s daily lives. “Whether it is SVO recreating classics to modern standards or creating track-day specials, I think it will grow as autonomous driving becomes a regular part of lives,” Kirner said. “I don’t for one second think we’ll see a generation appear with no interest in cars. Driving enthusiasts will still exist, and we’ll want to engineer cars for them.”

Kirner points to the demand of performance cars in today’s industry as a clear reminder that even if the industry as a whole is experiencing a major landscape shift with the advent of hybrid and electric cars, demand for sports cars will never go out of style.

A big reason for that revolves around the incessant need for people to enjoy the thrills that power, speed, and overall performance that sports cars provide. There may be a generation of people that are more focused on other things these days, but there’s still a significant chunk of the car-buying population that will continue to make sure that demand for performance cars continues to be where it is today.

That’s all well and good for Jag. The British automaker hit on its decision to launch the SVR performance brand a few years ago. Since its inception, the outfit has developed models like the F-Type SVR and I-Pace SVR, two performance-bred vehicles that are perfectly capable of accommodating the thrill requirements of performance car-starved buyers anywhere.

In Jaguar’s mind, as long as Jag can give them what they want, they’ll keep coming back for more.

Jaguar F-Type Performance Specifications

Further Reading

Jaguar F-Type

Read our full review of the Jaguar F-Type}

Jaguar XJR575

Read our full review of the Jaguar XJR575}