Market Insight: JLR prepares for electrification

THEIR very names are embedded in English automotive historical past for the reason that finish of the Second World Warfare, carrying the Union Jack on Jaguar automobiles around the globe from Daytona to LeMans whereas Land Rover campaigned quite a few Camel occasions from Australia to Zaire and efficiently accomplished the arduous trans-American expedition from Alaska to the tip of Chile.

Outstanding achievements in competitors have been much less outstanding for gross sales, particularly in recent times because the Jaguar and Land Rover manufacturers battle beneath intense new-vehicle gross sales competitors, difficult homeland politics which can be affecting manufacturing optimism, and a sequence of skirmishes together with element delays, transport hold-ups, an occasional quarantine problem and a extra impactful pandemic.

On high of this, Jaguar shall be an all-electric model from 2025 and Land Rover will introduce six pure EVs with the primary on sale in 2024. 60 per cent of Land Rover fashions may have zero tailpipe emissions by the tip of this decade because it embraces battery and hydrogen fuel-cell know-how.

It’s all nice information for the long run however in the meanwhile, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is doing it powerful with plans to chop 2000 white-collar jobs this yr – on high of the 4000 introduced in 2019 – and a $A750 million loss within the 2020 monetary yr and international gross sales down 23.6 per cent for the pandemic-affected 2020 calendar yr.

In Australia, Jaguar recorded 1326 gross sales in 2020, down 41.7 per cent on 2019 and fewer than half of its peak 3008 annual gross sales of 2016 when the F-Tempo swelled the client order lists.

Land Rover has a extra profitable historical past, additionally peaking in 2016 with 13,597 gross sales earlier than sliding to final yr’s 6339 complete, itself down 28.6 per cent on 2019. That yr, the Vary Rover Sport grew to become the model’s greatest performer, eclipsing earlier favourites the Evoque and the Discovery.

Jaguar has had a extra erratic gross sales course than its off-road sibling, changing into extra delicate to market strikes typified by the gross sales retraction attributable to the worldwide monetary disaster (2009 however shock waves as much as 2011 in Australia) that hardly recorded on Land Rover’s charts.

In its greatest yr of 2016, Jaguar had six fashions on sale with the F-Tempo and XE the most effective sellers given their seize of the SUV explosion (F-Tempo) and the development to downsize sedans and transfer to smaller automobiles (XE).

In that yr, the XE bought 1524 models, outselling the bigger XF (433 gross sales) and limousine-status XJ (36 gross sales). The F-Tempo bought 829 models because the model’s first SUV.

One yr later, the stranglehold of SUVs began for Jaguar when the F-Tempo outsold the XE (1275 gross sales in contrast with 791) and set the platform for the next E-Tempo and the EV SUV, the I-Tempo.

The E-Tempo doubled F-Tempo gross sales in 2020 and, mixed with the I-Tempo, discovered 732 new prospects within the yr. The F-Tempo, in the meantime, bought 311 models.

I-Tempo, although hardly cheap at $128,248 (plus prices) and upwards, has a distinct segment as an upmarket, compact pure EV with a very good vary, numerous package and really engaging strains. It could compete, primarily, with the Tesla Mannequin X which asks from $159,400, plus prices.

Jaguar’s lauded motorsports historical past has been blanketed by the flexibility of the SUV, with the F-Kind – Jaguar’s solely sports activities coupe – outstanding in 2013 and enduring diminishing curiosity by the following years.

In 2017, 142 F-Varieties have been bought and by 2020, 42 discovered consumers. There have been 5 bought in January this yr.

The story at Land Rover is extra uplifting. The Discovery had been the model’s main power from at the very least 2008 (when correct gross sales information from VFacts grew to become obtainable) adopted by Vary Rover Sport and the Freelander.

However consumers sought the model’s title with city-focused specs, together with a compact measurement, which pressed Freelander out of the image when the Evoque arrived in 2013 and instantly greater than tripled Freelander’s 856-unit gross sales.

There have been loads of causes for that, however many centred on the poor reliability document of the Freelander – to be honest, extra to do with the earlier Freelander 1 mannequin – and the actual fact the Evoque wore the upmarket Vary Rover badge.

Evoque bought 2595 models in 2013 to signify 31 per cent of the model’s annual gross sales. The Discovery made up 26 per cent and the Vary Rover Sport took a lot of the remaining, leaving the crumbs to the eternally growing old Defender variants and the upmarket Vary Rover.

A mixture of compact measurement and luxurious seems to be higher for the Land Rover fashions, with the 2020 line-up lead by the Vary Rover Sport (26 per cent of complete model gross sales), Evoque (22 per cent), Discovery Sport (19 per cent) and newcomer Velar (10 per cent).

Now Land Rover embarks on an partial electrical technique and Jaguar goes full EV, shedding just one mannequin – the XJ – on its option to its self-imposed 2025 emission-free deadline.