JLR (formerly Jaguar Land Rover) is slowing down its electric car launch plans across all its brands, partly to allow further development time but also to cater for a recent spike in demand for its plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Speaking to reporters recently, CEO Adrian Mardell hinted at a slight scaling back of the EV launch plan detailed by his predecessor, Thierry Bolloré, in 2021. Mardell said: “We talked about six Land Rovers by 2026. The reality is we’re likely to have six JLR products by 2026.
"We’re taking our time to make sure we put the best vehicles we’ve ever developed into the marketplace with that new technology.”
The first of JLR's new electric cars is the Range Rover EV, for which it has already taken more than 16,000 expressions of interest ahead of its launch later this year.
Mardell said the launch date of that car could be moved back to ensure it is fully ready for the market: “That’s essential for us, and if that takes a few more months to get to that point, then the team will be allowed to get to that point, because we can’t put these wonderful new products in the marketplace that loses some of the magic that we have in those vehicles today."
But another factor in JLR's decision to slow down its EV roll-out is a rise in demand for plug-in hybrid vehicles. “The other thing that’s clear is that the industry has evolved over the last three years,” Mardell said, "and there’s been a lot of surprise in terms of acceptance of the PHEV vehicles, and we’re working hard in the interim to make more PHEVs available to the marketplace.”
JLR currently sells plug-in hybrid versions of the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Evoque, Velar, Discovery Sport, Defender, Jaguar F-Pace and E-Pace - but it has not given any indication of how each is performing individually and nor has it said how this offering could be expanded.
The Land Rover Discovery is likely to be too far into its current life cycle to warrant the costly re-engineering programme necessary for the addition of a PHEV option. This same applies to the Jaguar XE and XF, which will both be retired soon to make way for Jaguar’s much more upmarket new-era EV models.
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Is it time for Jaguar to rethink it's EV only policy. I've said since it was announced that a struggling car maker shouldn't be focusing on a very limited market which is dominated by Tesla with it's dedicated charging infrastructure. Much of the world where Jaguar currently sells outside Europe are predominantly ICE and they are deliberately cutting this off!!
The three PACE models are all available with PHEV, and continuing to sell them along with the ICE variants would certainly help the ROI. If you can keep selling these models it doesn't make much sense just to abandon that market admittedly small market share. Most of the tooling is likely paid for, and another round of improvements could keep those models viable in the marketplace for a few more years. The New EV Jags are going to be phased in very slowly, so this would certainly help the Jaguar dealer base. I fully expect that now certain higher ups at JLR have departed for other opportunities, common sense and pragmatism will prevail within JLR management. The I/E Pace are made at Magna so they're not taking up space at Solihull earmarked for the New Jags, and iirc Velar and F-Pace share a lot of commonality and are made alongside each other at Solihull. The velar is staying in production for a fcouple more years, so where is the sense in binning the F-pace?
I'm waiting for the inevitable press release from JLR that the I/E/F-Pace will stay in production beyond 2025.
The idea that you can move (force) car buying from ICE to EV is deluded, but success could be acheived by transitioning via PHEV's. This decision by JLR to pull back on EV rollouts and increase PHEV's is totally in line with what the market is willing to support. Can't believe I am praising JLR, but credit where credits due!
You put it perfectly! I was going post something similar but you said if first. Governments who think they can come up with some arbitrary date to mandate or expedite the demise of ICE are completely detached from reality. Slowly but surely reality is slapping these politicians upside their collective heads. I give kudos to JLR for this pivot, but it didn't take a genius to see that this adjustment in strategy was going to happen sooner rather than later. GM came to this same realization a couple of weeks before JLR and imo their decision was inevitable and overdue.
Oh but they do! the EU's latest wheeze on the way is to make it illegal to repair older (e.g. pre-EV) cars so they have to be scrapped and you have to buy a nice new vastly overpriced VW Dullmobile-EV.And what the EU does, so does our EU following political class.Initial proposal is if a car is 15 years old and for example the gearboxes goes, it will be illegal to get a refurb. one chucked in you will be forced to scrap it. Initlally for 15 years old, but policy creep will be inevitable when they see they can force ICE off the road quicker so will become 13, 11, 10 no doubt.
You took that straight from your arse.
What a load of BS :))
It's ok, brexiloon, you took back control of keeping your cars foe as long as you want.