The JLR Group (previously Jaguar Land Rover) has finally appointed Adrian Mardell as its new permanent CEO. Mardell had already held the post on an interim basis since the resignation of former CEO Thierry Bolloré at the end of 2022. A new chief financial officer has also been appointed. The brand Land Rover is dissolved.

Since 1 January 2023, Mardell has been the sole leader of the carmaker, which now operates only as JLR. Under Bolloré, Mardell served as CFO on the board. Now his successor in this position has also been decided: Richard Molyneux is the new Chief Financial Officer. Molyneux has also been interim CFO since December 2022. Prior to that, he served as JLR’s Finance Director of Operations for six years.

“I offer my warmest congratulations to Adrian Mardell and Richard Molyneux on their respective appointments to Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of JLR,” says Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons.

“Adrian and Richard are an exceptional team with strong automotive and leadership experience. I look forward to working with them further, delivering JLR’s transformation to modern luxury, which is well underway.”

Bye-bye, Land Rover

The Tata subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover now refers to itself simply as JLR. ‘Land Rover’ as a brand has been dissolved, and the familiar model names of earlier Land Rover models have been elevated to separate brands in their place. Therefore, JLR Group currently comprises the following brands: Range Rover, Defender, Discovery, and Jaguar.

The future is electric

JLR announced earlier this year that it would invest 15 billion pounds in its electric future over the next five years. The equivalent of around 17 billion euros will be used to develop electric platforms and make plants fit for their (component) production.

The Halewood plant will be converted into a purely electric production facility. The Wolverhampton engine plant, which currently produces combustion engines, will manufacture electric drive units and battery packs for JLR’s next generation of vehicles. The plant will be renamed ‘Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Center’ to reflect this move.

Two electric Range Rovers and one EV Jaguar by 2025

An upcoming electric SUV for Range Rover will be based on the new all-electric EMA platform. Normally, this is an 800-volt platform, and the Electrified Modular Architecture will also be equipped with particularly high-torque electric motors.

In addition, JLR will retain the MLA platform, on which the current Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are based. It offers different options: ICE, hybrid, and battery-electric drive. Possible technical data for a BEV model on this platform are not yet known.

A third electric platform is being developed for Jaguar. The first of Jaguar’s three redesigned electric luxury models will be a four-door GT, which will be manufactured in Solihull.

With more power than any previous Jaguar, an electric range of up to 700 kilometers, and prices starting at £100 000 (± €110 000), the new Jaguar will be built on a proprietary architecture called JEA. This may be the renamed Panthera platform, which then-CEO Thierry Bolloré announced to investors in February 2022. Sales of the GT are due to start in 2024, with deliveries in 2025.

Too optimistic

While JLR reaffirms the ‘Reimagine’ strategy developed by Bolloré, it seems unlikely that the carmaker will reach its goal of making Jaguar a purely electric brand by 2025. Even if the Jaguar I-Pace, introduced in 2018, survives the brand’s electrification plans, Jaguar would have just two models on offer in 2025: the I-Pace and the just announced four-door GT.

Besides the I-Pace, there are currently five internal combustion or hybrid models in the portfolio – the SUV models E-Pace and F-Pace, the saloons XE and XF, and the sports car F-Type. The latter will already disappear from the portfolio this year; it is unknown how long the others will survive.

The ‘Reimagine’ strategy, which the current CEO Adrian Mardell helped shape, also envisages the repositioning of JLR “as an electric-first, modern luxury carmaker by 2030″. That goal seems more realistic – also in view of the global demand for electric premium SUVs and the Range Rover announcements now made.

“I am proud to announce we are accelerating our electrification path,” said Mardell in April, referring to the investment plans. “We are making one of our UK plants and our next-generation medium-size luxury SUV architecture fully electric. This investment enables us to deliver to our modern luxury electric future, developing new skills, and reaffirming our commitment to be carbon net zero by 2039.”