The Swallow Sidecar Company began by making motorcycle sidecars in Blackpool before moving into automobile bodywork. Under the SS Cars name, the company collaborated with Standard Motor Company to produce complete cars, and the Jaguar name first appeared in September 1935 on an SS 2.5-litre sports saloon. At the end of World War II, the SS Cars shareholders voted to change the company name to Jaguar Cars Limited, with chairman William Lyons noting that unlike SS the new name could not be confused with any foreign name. The postwar period was shaped by material shortages but underpinned by Bill Lyons' determination to offer exceptional value, summarised in Jaguar's long-running slogan "Grace, Space, Pace."
The cornerstone of postwar Jaguar was the twin overhead camshaft straight-six engine designed during the war years by William Heynes and Walter Hassan. Introduced in the XK120 in 1948, this engine established Jaguar's engineering credibility and went on to power the XK140, XK150, E-Type, and a succession of XJ saloons, remaining in production in various forms until 1992. The XK120 was initially planned as a short run of around 200 vehicles but overwhelming demand turned it into a commercial cornerstone. The E-Type, launched in 1961, became one of the most celebrated sports cars of the twentieth century.
Jaguar's most celebrated competition chapter was written at Le Mans. The C-Type won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1951 and 1953, and the D-Type followed with victories in 1955, 1956 and 1957, with the latter two coming in the hands of the Scottish privateer team Ecurie Ecosse. The 1955 win was overshadowed by the worst accident in motorsport history at that race. Competition manager Lofty England later became chief executive of the company.
After a long absence from top-level racing, Jaguar returned through a partnership with Tom Walkinshaw Racing. The XJ-S won the European Touring Car Championship in 1984, and a TWR XJ-S took the 1985 Bathurst 1000. TWR then prepared Jaguar V12-powered Group C cars for the World Sports Prototype Championship, winning Le Mans in 1988 and 1990 with the XJR series. The XJR-14 clinched the 1991 World Sportscar Championship title.
Ford purchased the Stewart Grand Prix Formula One team in 1999 and rebranded it as Jaguar Racing for the 2000 season. The programme ran for five seasons through 2004 without scoring a victory, achieving only two podium finishes, before Ford sold the team to Red Bull, which rebranded it as Red Bull Racing. In 2015 Jaguar announced a return to motorsport in Formula E, and as of 2024 the team had accumulated 16 wins along with a Teams Championship and a Manufacturers Trophy.
A merger with the British Motor Corporation in 1966 brought Jaguar into British Motor Holdings, which then became part of British Leyland in 1968. Following nationalisation in 1975 and years of under-investment, Jaguar was floated as a standalone company on the London Stock Exchange in 1984 under the Thatcher government's privatisation programme. Sir John Egan oversaw a significant quality and productivity recovery in the following years. Ford acquired Jaguar in 1990 for inclusion in its Premier Automotive Group. Under Ford ownership Jaguar expanded its range with the S-Type in 1999 and X-Type in 2001 but never turned a profit.
In 2008 Ford sold both Jaguar Cars and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors for £1.7 billion. Tata established Jaguar Land Rover as a subsidiary, and on 1 January 2013 Jaguar Cars Limited was formally merged with Land Rover into a single operating company, Jaguar Land Rover Limited, ending Jaguar's existence as a separate legal entity. JLR announced in 2021 that all future Jaguar-branded cars would be fully electric, a transformation that saw combustion engine production end in late 2025 ahead of the brand's planned electric relaunch in 2026.
Jaguar's most significant road cars include the XK120 (1948), the Mark VII saloon that won the 1956 Monte Carlo Rally, the compact Mark 2 that became popular with British police forces, the long-running XJ6 (from 1968), the XJ220 supercar confirmed as the world's fastest production car at 217 mph in 1992, and the F-Type, launched in 2013 as a spiritual successor to the E-Type. The aluminium-intensive XJ introduced in 2003 was the first production car to use an all-aluminium monocoque, while Jaguar's first electric vehicle, the I-Pace, went on sale in 2018.