The technology news seem to be going through a bit of a phase at the moment where the only important thing on the entire planet is whatever Elon Musk said. Needless to say, I’m still not touching that one. Especially when so many other people are. Mostly on Twitter. However, there was other important bit of news crossing past my desk yesterday, and it has to do with Jaguar Land Rover.
JLR’s story in recent times is a study in extremes. At one end you have Land Rover, which has ridden its image into success and sales. Oh sure, they routinely rank at the bottom of reliability surveys and the new Defender is about as good a successor to the original one as I am a decent Ricardo Montalban impersonator. But they are still selling, and selling very well. From the person who thinks a Land Cruiser is too plebian to the one that considers a Luxury SUV a uniform and the BMW’s and Audi’s of the world a little too German, Land Rovers have as much brand awareness as they have ever been. Even when independent outlets like TFL have had horrendous experience with them.
At the other end, there is Jaguar. For a long while now the Red-headed stepchild of the brothers. An attempt to update the traditional Jaguar design by Ian Callum resulted in amazing designs that could be easily confused with any number of other brands. And without any other meaningful user benefits (A felt-lined glovebox, the best sounding V8 on the world, and a bleeding-edge interior design can only take you so far when you spend most of your time in loaders) No Jaguar made a compelling buy against its competition with the possible exception of the still beautiful F-Type.
Enter salvation from an unlikely source: Thierry Bolloré. Former Renault CEO and engaged by parent company Tata to keep the sinking ship pointing in the right direction.
His first decisions were controversial. Mainly, killing an almost done but unreleased EV platform that was supposed to underpin the next Generation Jaguar XJ (rather dumpy-looking camo’d prototype above.) and a couple other Land Rover products in favor of pursuing a new strategy simply called “Reimagine”.
The results behind the scenes seemed to be rather positive. Streamlining, moving and changing key personnel. Noticing that the sand was shifting over the entire industry and offering upskill opportunities for workers and entering crucial partnerships. Unfortunately, that’s not how it looked from the outside.
Without any design concepts, teasers, or even those PR-sponsored “leaks” of upcoming vehicles. JLR looked dead in the water. Vehicles coming out, like the rather excellent new Range Rover, were things that were already in progress when he took the reins. By committing to start their new product programs from scratch, he set target goals back a couple of years with nothing to show for it. And then the world ended and that made chips really hard to get, especially when bidding for them against companies a literal order of magnitude larger than yours.
From a “Keep your head down and things will start coming out soon” pattern. We’re going back to uncertainty as the top job at JLR is left vacant and we have an interim CEO in the meantime. Adrian Mardell is JLR’s chief financial officer and interim CEO. A Jaguar Loyalist who has been with the company for 30 years. It sounds like the perfect person to keep the lights on while the dust settles.
Me? I just think he sounds suspiciously like Roger Smith.
