Jaguar Land Rover rebrands as JLR

While there will be plenty who will regret that JLR has called time on using Land Rover as a name – it doesn’t crack a single mention in the press material – there appears little doubt that the four brands, and Jaguar in particular, now have a clearer future than they have had for a long time.

What can we expect? That £15bn will pay for an all-new four-door GT Jaguar, plus two more luxury electric Jags. It will fund new pure-electric architecture for mid-size SUVs and the conversion of Halewood to an all-electric car plant. And among other things, it will see the Wolverhampton engine plant switch from making combustion engines to electric motors.

The first fruit of all this? That will be the all-electric Range Rover which you will be able to pre-order later this year, even though we haven’t seen or heard much else about it yet.

It’s all part of an updated Reimagine strategy for the firm, announced on 19^th April and masterminded by new chief executive Adrian Mardell, that puts electrification first and foremost.

Mardell tells us: “Today I am proud to announce we are accelerating our electrification path, 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 and reaffirms our commitment to be carbon net zero by 2039.”

For JLR, the new “House of Brands” (their words) approach will see the Tata-owned company “reposition itself as an electric-first, modern luxury carmaker by 2030”. By then the plan is to offer pure electric versions of Range Rover, Discovery and Defender (probably Velar too, along with another model, touted as a new junior Defender) while Jaguar will be entirely electric.  

“The formation of the House of Brands is a natural evolution, with a purpose of elevating and amplifying the uniqueness of our characterful British marques,” says JLR creative chief Gerry McGovern.

A highlight of the plan for many will be the commitment to make new Jaguar models, following the uncertainty after the cancellation of the electric XJ. “We have radically reimagined Jaguar as a modern luxury brand,” adds McGovern. “The key to Jaguar’s transformation is that the designs convey that they are a copy of nothing.”

The first new Jag will be a sleek four-door GT built on its own architecture (called JEA) and to be made in Solihull. It will have more power than any previous Jag (so upwards of the current supercharged V8’s 575PS), boast a 430-mile range and cost from around £100,000. Order one next year for delivery in 2025.

And what of the Land Rover, sorry, JLR brands? The all-electric Range Rover arrives first – we will know a lot more about this later this year. It will be made in Solihull and stay on the flexible modular longitudinal architecture (MLA) on which Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are currently built. This will allow for petrol, diesel and hybrid variants to stay in production for markets around the world that still need them.

JLR’s mid-size platform, EMA, was to have been similarly powertrain-flexible but now will be all-electric only, meaning that the next-gen Evoque, Velar and Disco Sport to be made in the revamped Halewood electric car plant will all be combustion-engine-free. Expect the first to arrive in 2025.

Plenty to look forward to then… even if we aren’t meant to call them Land Rovers any more.