Jaguar Land Rover is on course to generate £2.75bn in pre-tax earnings by next April, according to latest figures. As a result, the firm is on target to be the most successful company in the history of the home-grown British car industry.
The year after obtaining £500m in private bank loans in 2009, JLR had revenues of £6.53 billion. In the financial year that ended in April this year, it banked £15.78bn, a rise of 140 per cent.
Pre-tax earnings in the immediate aftermath of the credit crunch were £349m, impressive given the market circumstances. To April 2013, that leaped to £2.4bn, and it is expected to jump to £2.75bn by next April.
JLR is currently investing far more than it makes in annual profits, in order to expand its product line and pull all of its models on to three basic platforms. The majority of models will be powered by a new four-cylinder engine range. It is also investing in a joint-venture factory in China.
As of April, JLR had after-tax profits of about £1.2bn, but it is spending £5bn this year and next year on investments in new products and new factories. This intensive burst will help produce the new five-model Discovery family - which also replaces the Freelander - the new four-cylinder engine plant in Wolverhampton, Jaguar’s new aluminium platform and its new compact saloon and SUV.
JLR expects costs to be driven down. The big Range Rover and Land Rover Discovery 5 model families will be built on the same aluminium platform and the Evoque and future baby Discoveries built on the same steel platform. Savings will also be made when JLR switches to its own ‘Hotfire’ petrol and diesel engines, rather than buying in units from rival car makers, as happens today.
Based on current trends, JLR could build 750,000 cars in the medium term, well up on its global sales of 357,773 last year. It is expected that the compact Jaguar saloon and SUV should add 150,000 units by 2017, and Land Rover predicts the new baby Discoveries to outperform their Freelander predecessors.
A major makeover for the Jaguar XF (which will get the new Hotfire engines) will boost Jaguar’s presence in one of the industry’s most profitable segments.
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AUTOCAR (9 October 2013),
AUTOCAR (9 October 2013), reports that (only) . . . “If the Jaguar "760" project goes well, a two-door coupe version could be in the showrooms in 2018”.
Could the Jaguar company do any more to publicise, display, its - lack of - confidence in such an important and significant “make-or-break” new “Junior executive” model, than to qualify the future launch schedule of variants before the “lead” model is even introduced? We could/would/should expect to get the two-door coupe variant, at the same time as when all the model variants are introduced.
Is moving the B-piller that difficult - with “merely” a shorter rear ¾ panel and longer door?! We know that they developed the F-Type coupe in parallel with the recently launched open convertible, to ensure that one model did not compromise the (subsequent) development of a further variant. How much more difficult would it be to develop and engineer all “760” variants at the same time with them all on the “drawing board” together?
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It is to be hoped that the "760" four-door “saloon”, will provide suitable and appropriate rear-seat accommodation levels, when compared to the German competition.
When the “road-warriors” all pile into their Jaguar "760" on the way to the pub after the interminable Friday “Sales Meeting”, the “designated driver” will still enjoy the same spacious environment behind the steering wheel as they do during the rest of the week.
However, the two colleagues relegated to the rear seats of the "760", are going to find their comfort levels seriously compromised - according to the sneak previews and artists impressions of the “four-door-coupe” like "760"; and the empirical evidence of the already existing “four-door-coupe” XF, and the already existing “four-door-coupe” XJ. (Unfortunately, every one was able to witness the inelegant entry of the bride’s family into the rear of their XJ, the morning after the wedding of the future king of England!).
Further, to state that the whole future of Jaguar depends upon the success of the "760", is a little unfair, unrealistic, and displays a woeful ignorance of the potential yet to be exploited that is contained within the existing models, such as the existing “four-door-coupe” XF, and the existing “four-door-coupe” XJ, and their meagre sales figures - when compared to the German opposition.
We were promised proper, conventionally proportioned, four-door “saloon” versions of the “four-door-coupe” XF, and the “four-door-coupe” XJ, before they were introduced. We are still waiting!
All those designers “beavering-away” in Whitley’s “Geoff Lawson design centre”, must be able to produce a conventionally proportioned, four-door “saloon” version of the“four-door-coupe” XF, and the “four-door-coupe” XJ - that allows/offers appropriate levels of rear seat headroom with associated ease of entry/egress, for the Executive market segment, and the Luxury market segment.
The limited sales volumes of the“four-door-coupe” XF, and the “four-door-coupe” XJ, demonstrably confirm that there is something fundamentally wrong with the present product offering, when compared to the German competition.
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Two smaller suggestions could be introduced immediately - even if only as customer “options” - without actually committing the company to standardising the proposals, and which would undoubtedly widen the appeal to potential customers, of even the existing “four-door-coupe” XF, and the existing “four-door-coupe” XJ.
1. Offer the XJ customer, and the XF sportbrake (estate) customer, the sensible option of having their respective models’ “C-piller” finished in matching body colour to the rest of the vehicle - instead of the confusing, affected, exaggerated, pretentious, blacked-out surround of the read windscreen.
2. Offer the XF customer the option of having the whole facia of the existing “four-door-coupe” XF, to be available in (various) wood veneers, rather that the ubiquitous “Knurled Aluminium” which really is (still !) trying too hard to be “young and trendy”.
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It is hoped that Jaguar would accept all the above suggestions as positive and constructive. However, from previous experience it is evident that the company is afflicted by the dismissive malady often referred to as “not invented here”.
this forum really has gone to
this forum really has gone to the dogs, hasn't it
ThwartedEfforts wrote:this
Get lost you Nazi!
I see the lunatic is still
I see the lunatic is telling himself to go home, despite the fact that he is too scared to venture out of it.
I'm a huge pillock
Sorry everyone.