Renault ex-CEO Bolloré to head Tata’s JLR

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover, the British luxury car maker, on Tuesday named Thierry Bolloré as its new chief executive, betting that the former Renault boss can steer Britain’s biggest carmaker through a pandemic that has ravaged the industry.

Bolloré, who will join in September 10, replaces Ralf Speth, who had led the group for more than a decade and will remain with it as non-executive chairman.

Amidst the coronavirus crisis, the new French chief executive faces many internal company problems, including poor build quality, a slow rollout of electric technology and an overlapping lineup of vehicles.

Jaguar Land Rover lost £500m in the three months to March, and is expected to announce its latest results this week.

The company is cutting more than 1,000 jobs and is seeking extra cost savings of £1 billion as it confronts the collapse in sales brought about by the pandemic.

However, the struggling carmaker was already in the process of cutting £4 billion of costs before the crisis hit the industry earlier this year.

Bolloré, an auto industry veteran, who was a longtime aide of Carlos Ghosn, was ousted from Renault less than a year ago as the French carmaker sought “a breath of fresh air” following the arrest of former boss Ghosn in Japan.

Bolloré had described his sudden departure from Renault as a “coup” in the French media.

N. Chandrasekaran, chairman at Tata Motors, India’s biggest automaker by revenues, said that Bolloré brought a “wealth of experience” to the role, including “a proven record of implementing complex transformations”.

“It will be my privilege to lead this fantastic company through what continues to be the most testing time of our generation,” Bolloré said.

His selection ends a lengthy search in which several high-profile candidates were shortlisted for the role, including former Audi CEO Bram Schot and JLR’s engineering head Nick Rogers.

Bolloré will inherit a business that is shrinking in an industry dominated by giants.

JLR, which sold just over 500,000 vehicles in the fiscal year 2019-20, is dwarfed by direct competitors BMW and Daimler, which both sold over 2 million units.