Jaguar Land Rover Starts The EV Shift That Will Make Or Break It

https://carbuzz.com/news/jaguar-star...ke-or-break-it


As of now, Jaguar Land Rover has officially begun work on converting its Halewood, UK factory into a facility capable of producing vehicles based on the conglomerate's new electrified modular architecture (EMA). Models like the Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport will ride on the new platform. Currently, the Jaguar F- Type, XE, and XF are also produced at Halewood.

The tendering process for the new factory has already begun, but current plans indicate a much more intense refurbishing of the factory will have to occur soon. For now, it appears that will come in the form of a shutdown in 2024 when the conversion is fully underway.




As of now, it's not clear how that will affect production volumes for the brand. Right now, any slowdowns are something the brand can't afford. Sales have plummeted by 14% for the year ending March 31, 2022. The new Halewood facility will produce both plug-in and fully electric vehicles riding on the EMA platform we discussed above. JLR has plans for the EMA to extend beyond just the Disco and the Evoque at some point.

There will also be upcoming Jaguar EVs that are sure to make use of the platform as well. In addition to producing vehicles for both brands, the plans also include a new and enlarged body shop.



Still, despite the profit loss from the plant's planned 2024 production pause, the upgrade is a necessary one. We've already talked about declining sales at JLR, despite the popularity of models like the Defender and Range Rover. Jag needs to pull more weight, and JLR has previously announced the "Reimagine" strategy to help.

Part of this strategy means that no new Jaguar products will be introduced until 2025 (note that this is after the Halewood conversion) when the brand goes all-electric. Additionally, Jag will be totally repositioned as a Bentley rival. Allegedly, this means the launch of two new crossovers and a two-door F-Type replacement.

While Land Rover continues to see success in the luxury SUV segment, Jaguar has stagnated in recent years. JLR saw a % year-on-year reduction, to £18.3 billion (approximately $22.4 billion) in profit last year. Recently, JLR has blamed this on the semiconductor shortage, which it thinks will "continue through the next fiscal year with gradual improvements."

Thus far, that has been proven true. The auto market is softening, if slowly. CEO Thierry Bollore said earlier this year that "we are rapidly progressing our plans for a new generation of electric vehicles with our all-electric Jaguar strategy and BEV-first EMA platform for new Land Rover products."

 

The main reason car makers are desperate for us all to drive EV’s is because they are cheaper to develop and build, despite their crazy prices.

They have more in common with childrens toys than a ICE car. China will eventually dominate this market with ease.

 

404 page gone? And Halewood? Last time I checked (and definitely a couple of years ago when I got a tour of the F-Type production line) the F-Type, XF and XE were produced at the Castle Bromwich plant outside Birmingham.

After about a decade of bad brand/market decisions I think they're finally onto the right strategy and really hope they make it.

 

I also hope Jaguar survives - it's a classic British marque, but if they want to compete against Bentley they'll really have to up their game when it comes to customer service. Bentley prices are beyond me, so I'll be sticking with my F-Type for as long as I can.

 

The link is fixed.

They do not always get the details correct.

 

I'm curious to see how this new strategy will play out for Jaguar. Positioning themselves as a Bentley rival seems highly aspirational.

 

Interesting and reassuring that the article mentions an F-Type replacement. Previously I've mainly seen talk of the SUV market in connection to the new strategy but always thought there would also be a new XJ and new F-Type.

My guess is that they will be a bit below Bentley but still much more exclusive and aspirational than today, which is the right way to go. It probably hasn't been as noticeable over in the states but here in Europe they've slowly been killing the brand during the past decade... by dumbing down the products and trying to become a high volume producer by trying to compete in the mid range company car market with the Germans . Which was just bound to fail from day one.

It also looks like they managed to churn out quite a few poverty spec XEs and XFs to random car rental companies which just damaged the brand. A friend of mine who does a lot of business travel in rental cars once got a pre-facelift XE and was a bit shocked by how bad it was (apart from its good handling) because he was comparing to stuff like the 3 series and C class. Don't get me wrong though, I personally really like the XE, especially a well equipped facelift car.

Innovative, more or less high spec, characterful and more or less exclusive cars is what Jaguar should stick to so the strategy sounds right to me.

 

The market you are describing is very difficult to compete-in in my opinion. There are established brands with huge R&D budgets. Look at Aston Martin, they are exactly in that market, arguably they already have a more exclusive/prestigious brand to begin with compared to Jaguar and they are very much struggling. They are basically using engine and electronics from older AMG parts-bin to compete with Porsche, McLaren etc. and obviously that's not good enough. Regardless of how Jaguar is positioned in the future unless they significantly increase their R&D spending, I feel they will have hard time competing regardless of the market segment.

 

I agree on the XE. We've had two, a decent spec pre facelift was a fantastic car but Jag destroyed any chance of success by having too many and too pricey options. One of my mates was busting his hump to get one, but the similar spec 3 series could be had for virtually 20% less if you looked hard enough. The 2020 model (2019 build) fixed that, it is a good package at a great price, but then they dropped the party piece v6 which it really needed.

Similar situation with the XF (the post '15 shape which was bland until the facelift), and the F Pace, and the ePace. The iPace was at least 25% overpriced, Jag had a real opportunity there and really it went absolutely begging. They needed to get runs on the board before they could let the cars sell themselves.

I'd consider an electric Jag, but really I dont feel enthusiasm for electric cars, straight line speed does nothing for me, so I cant imagine spending big $$ on one.

 

I can't help but wonder how the end of F-Type production will affect the value of existing cars. Will it, A: Make prices rise because they're becoming rare, or B: Make prices drop because parts and shops knowing how to work on them will dry up. I think that "B" won't happen for a long time, but some people may decide that right away. Who knows.

 

I'm in no hurry to buy electric. I love the tech behind the cars, but don't buy into the "better planet" hype. That being said, I have some stock in an Aussie lithium mine, so, GO GREEN!

 

For the love of me I can't see why the world is looking at electric cars as a future means of transportation. Was reading the BBC business news this morning it stated that owners were having to currently pay £0.18 per mile equivalent to fast charge their cars at service stations due to current energy rises , a petrol car is on £0.19 per mile so not a cheap alternative. And energy prices will only continue to rise in future , we should be looking at alternatives like hydrogen

 

My F-Type is on £0.3852 per mile. And worth every penny!

I agree about hydrogen, though, that seems to be a better long term alternative, there's a lot of it about!

 

Hydrogen is a fantasy solution unless someone comes up with a cheap low-energy way to make it. As it is now, it takes a LOT of electricity to split water into H2 and O. Since everyone's running away from nuclear power plants, there's little spare power around to commit it to the above.

 

China is done. They'll be lucky to avoid massive famine.

 

Not to mention massive storage and transport problems. Ain't gonna happen at least not in my lifetime.

 

I've got more than enough "doom and gloom" outside of the automotive realm to worry over, so I'm not going to put this in that category. When an electric F-ish-Type shows up, I'll give it a test drive.

 

Well have to inform you that some European car makers like Porsche are and have invested Heavily in it

 

EV convertibles are a rare thing, mostly due to the weight of the battery pack, necessitating more robust rollover protection. I suspect the F-Type convertible will retain value as convertible sports cars go away.

 

People not so long from now are going to look at this generation of EV's as the absurdity they truly are. EV's are a great idea sometime in the future [when they figure out how to make it work really well] but without the social pressure from the Martians and government subsidies, who exactly would be buying these vehicles?

Although there is no doubt that we [humanity] are going through a serious rough patch affecting EVERYTHING, it seems like energy is the last item we need to worry about [even clean energy] because after all, matter IS energy [e=mc x c]. If we are indeed frying the planet to any great degree, then Mother Earth will take care of the issue herself [I always put my money on nature to choose the correct path].

Even if you could build an EV that did 0-60mph in .1 sec, who cares? It's not the speed, instead, it is the connection between the engine and the driver. That's why a great ICE [such as an F type] feels so incredible and an EV, soulless.