RALF SPETH ON…
THE TEAM
“Some of the car industry’s most unbelievably creative engineers are at Jaguar Land Rover. This combination of British design and creative engineering is what is helping us to deliver really competitive products.”
THE FUTURE OF DIESELS
“The diesel has to have a future. We need diesels, and not just for passenger cars. London is fed by diesels. Anyone who thinks they can simply remove diesels from the world’s megacities will soon discover they’re wrong. For now, there’s no alternative.”
HANDLING BREXIT
“I was part of the Remain campaign, so I’m biased. Brexit is part of the democratic process; we accept it and we’ll go forward. But we need three things: free trade, trade without red tape and free access to the talent we need.”
SEEING JLR CARS ON THE ROAD
“I like the look of our cars. When you see the latest Jaguar or Land Rover driving about, I think it’s a kind of design statement. We don’t have to be shy any more.”
RECRUITING TOP TALENT
“The idea that the car industry just buys from suppliers and throws everything together is nice, but the reality is you need hundreds of talented people to organise the integration. A car is the most complex consumer product on earth. It takes in-house experts to combine all the technologies.”
POOLING UK UNIVERSITY KNOW-HOW
“In the important areas — space, weight, capacity — batteries have progressed by around 4% to 7% annually. Now we need to concentrate the efforts of our UK universities on the problem and accelerate the progress. UK universities have the best base science in the world.”
BUILDING NEW PRODUCTS
“It’s clear we have to prioritise our resources. But the car industry’s rapid rate of change means that even small companies like ours can do very innovative things, because nearly everybody starts from scratch.”
EXPANDING JLR
“You have to proceed at a sensible speed and I think we’re doing that. I expected to do this job for two years, but now it’s seven and I’m still enjoying it. I still find it amazing, contributing to this thing and helping shape it.”