Bolloré breaks cover…
LUXURY Reimagined. For those of you who haven’t watched the video that finally broke the 157 days of silence since Thierry Bolloré took over at JLR, those words are really all you need to know. In fact, ‘Luxury’ was such an important part of the message that Mr Bolloré said it over 20 times – I counted. JLR has set its sights on becoming even more of a luxury car maker than it already is. Although Mr Bolloré didn’t say as much in his 20 minute video, some commentators have interpreted this to mean that he now sees his competitors as Rolls-royce and Bentley. That’s a lofty ambition, to say the least.
One thing that’s also very clear is that he wants JLR to pursue profit over sales volume, which presumably means that JLR will stop seeking to take on the likes of BMW in the sales numbers game. This is particularly interesting, because it represents a U-turn on his predecessor Prof Dr Sir Ralf Speth’s strategy, which was to make JLR a highvolume manufacturer.
The word ‘Reimagined’ is also worth examining, because while it encompasses the much-needed reinvention of the ailing Jaguar brand, it also embraces a total commitment across the group to electric propulsion systems, including a very significant comment regarding the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology for the larger, heavier vehicles such as the Range Rover, with a plan to begin testing on UK roads this year. This comes at a time when many commercial vehicle manufacturers are concluding that fuel cells are the way forward for them.
The strategy makes it clear that the two brands will have their own platforms and their own distinct personalities, meaning the increasing overlap we’ve seen between Jaguar and Land Rover over the past few years, which led to the creation of Jaguars that competed with Land Rovers, should end. Building your own competitors was never going to work out well.
Bolloré set out his agenda clearly, and bravely underpinned it all with dates. In the next five years, Land Rover will introduce six pure electric variants with the first all-electric vehicle arriving in 2024. Diesel will be phased out across the board by 2026. By 2030, 60 per cent of Land Rovers sold will be equipped with zero tailpipe emissions powertrains, and by 2039 the aim is to achieve net zero carbon emissions across all of the company’s supply chain, products and operations. They are bold and inspiring objectives, and I think Bolloré is to be applauded for them.
All this means we can expect everincreasing amounts of on-board tech, of course, and it was interesting to learn that currently one in four of JLR’S engineering team is a software or IT expert. Bolloré expects this to increase dramatically as he pursues ‘the serenity, calmness, the smoothness of the ride, the comfort of the journey, and the purity of electric luxury’. That statement sums up the future of the marque pretty thoroughly. It is a world away from the experience of driving any of my Land Rovers. Such is progress.
There were also a few words about ‘rightsizing, re-purposing and reorganising’ which includes ‘the creation of a flatter structure designed to empower employees’. What this means in practical terms was revealed within days, with Sky News announcing that some 2000 management posts would be lost in the UK and elsewhere.
I don’t know about you but, if you watched it, one thing I found intriguing in the video was this. The opening sequence included footage dedicated to Jaguar’s heritage vehicles, with images of the XK120, the E-type, the XKSS and the XJ-S models, but there was just half a second of Series I. Blink and you missed it, as I did first time round. No HUEY, no real Defender or Discovery, no Range Rover classic blasting across the desert sands. Just modern footage of current Land Rover vehicles. Was this an oversight? Did the editor time-out on the length of the video and decide to drop the historic Land Rover stuff on the cutting room floor? Or is Land Rover history and heritage not seen as relevant or important for the future when it comes to ‘Luxury Reimagined’ on the Land Rover side of the house?
This is interesting, because within the company’s Special Vehicles business, which includes Classic Works, they can’t seem to get enough of reimagining the real Defender, despite the fact that it has been out of production for five years and despite the fact that we can assume there will never be a similar vehicle in the company’s new product line-up again. It simply won’t fit with the Luxury theme.
Real Defender is like a piece of particularly sticky chewing gum on their finger. JLR can’t get away from it. Firstly, we had the £150,000 Defender Works V8. Then we had the new £200,000 Bowler CSP575, which has something resembling a real Defender body plonked on top of a high-tech steel chassis and roll cage. And now we have the latest offering, the limited edition V8 Trophy, with prices starting at £195,000 for the 90. More for the 110, of course.
In light of Mr Bolloré’s carefully considered and well-presented plan for the future, the ongoing interest in making money from recycled real Defenders seems incongruous, unless it’s just about milking the seemingly inexhaustible interest in tweaked, highperformance versions of a vehicle the company no longer makes.
“JLR has set its sights on becoming even more of a luxury car maker than it already is, and that its to pursue profit over sales volume, which represents a U-turn on Speth's strategy"