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Jaguar has been accused of abandoning loyal customers and dealerships with its controversial rebrand, as the carmaker prepares to debut its new electric vehicle (EV) lineup.

The company will unveil the “design vision concept” for its latest generation of cars – all of which will be battery-powered – at an art show in Miami, Florida, on Monday night.

It is part of a historic shake-up that will see the marque target wealthier customers and slash the number of UK dealerships that can sell the luxury cars.

However, the rebrand has sparked a storm of controversy, with the Independent Motor Dealers Association on Sunday claiming it would also leave dozens of the company’s retail partners and their customers worse off.

Umesh Samani, chairman of the IMDA and owner of the Specialist Cars dealership in Stoke, said: “There are a lot of angry dealerships out there, because some have invested millions of pounds in these franchises but now won’t be able to continue carrying the Jaguar brand.

“You’ve also got to ask, what will customers do for maintenance and repairs now, when you are narrowing down the number of dealerships so much?

“There’s going to be a major impact and I’m not sure the company has realised what that full effect is going to be yet.”

Jaguar bosses confirmed last month that the company’s ongoing rebrand meant the number of dealerships would be “significantly reduced” in the UK, from 80 today to around 20.

At the moment, most dealerships that work with parent company Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) have showrooms that are split 50-50 between the Land Rover and Jaguar brands.

One company spent as much as £10m building one of these in Lincoln, according to trade publication Car Dealer.

But under the ongoing “house of brands” strategy and the latest changes to Jaguar, some 60 showrooms will now have to lose the Jaguar brand and instead focus solely on the Land Rover sub-brands Range Rover, Defender and Discovery.

Jaguar has insisted that Jaguar drivers will not be left “high and dry” and will be able to continue getting their cars serviced at all JLR franchises.

But Mr Samani warned it could make it harder to obtain specialist parts and would mean dealerships lose footfall that comes with the Jaguar marque.

Under the controversial rebrand, Jaguar has also dropped its famous “growler” badges and unveiled a new motif and logo ahead of its transition to an all-electric lineup in 2026.

The announcement was accompanied by an advertisement featuring a diverse cast of colourfully dressed models strutting around a Martian-style landscape.

It prompted ridicule in some quarters, with critics claiming the “woke” promotion had trashed the brand’s “Jag man” heritage while showing no actual cars.

But Rawdon Glover, Jaguar’s managing director, dismissed the furore as a  “blaze of intolerance”.

Executives believe that to attract bigger-spending customers, Jaguar must become more distinctive.

“If we play in the same way that everybody else does, we’ll just get drowned out. So we shouldn’t turn up like an auto brand,” Mr Glover told the Financial Times.

“We need to re-establish our brand and at a completely different price point so we need to act differently.”

To that end, Jaguar is hoping to make a splash this week when it unveils its new concept EV at Miami Art Week.

The event, which is due to take place at 8pm local time on Monday, will see the new car displayed alongside more conventional works of contemporary art.

One insider teased it would not involve a traditional silk reveal, adding: “That’s quite traditional auto show. This will be more avant-garde.”

Jaguar says the “copy of nothing” campaign evokes the original ethos of its founder, Sir William Lyons, as well as the novel design pedigree associated with the iconic E-Type from the 1960s.

Bosses have admitted it will also require the brand to go further upmarket – probably beyond the buying power of many existing customers.

The I-Pace, Jaguar’s first electric car which was discontinued, had a starting price of around £70,000, whereas the marque’s latest cars are expected to sell for more than £100,000 each.

Mr Samani said he believed that was a mistake the brand would come to regret. “I think it’s being talked about, but for all the wrong reasons,” he added. “People think of Jaguars as premium, quality cars that they can aspire to own.

“This new approach – I just don’t get it, frankly. They are losing an identity that they’ve built their entire heritage on and it’s going to lose them a lot of customers.”

On Sunday, a JLR spokesman said: “As part of our Reimagine strategy, we said we would right size, repurpose and reorganise our global operations.

“This includes the number of markets we operate in, and the retailer footprint required to support the new brand.

“With the opportunity to reinvent Jaguar as a luxury brand, targeting a lower sales volume globally means it is logical that we will see a reduced retail network and not be as present globally in all countries where we sold the brand in the past.

“There will be a phased roll-out of markets at launch.”