Jaguar will survive despite production changes in the UK – executive

Jaguar Land Rover is planning an overhaul of its production plans for 2023 as it continues to battle the effects of the global shortage of semiconductors, and prepares Jaguar for an electric future.

Three all-new electric ‘performance’ models are still planned to lead the next generation of Jaguars – despite changes to the production plans for the British brand from early next year.

According to The Guardian in the UK, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is planning to move from two factory shifts to one on the line that builds the Jaguar F-Pace and Range Rover Velar – plus decrease production of the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport.

Meanwhile, The Guardian and Bloomberg claim production of higher-profit models – such as the full-size Range Rover – will increase.

But Jaguar Land Rover executives told Drive these moves to streamline the company’s manufacturing operations in 2023 have been wrongly interpreted as the trigger for long-term changes and job losses.

It also raised doubts about the future of Jaguar, which has seen a massive downturn in demand for its traditional luxury passenger cars and put its SUVs into direct competition with its stablemates from Land Rover and Range Rover.

Jaguar Land Rover is adamant that Jaguar still has a future and the production overhaul will allow it to focus on the popular models across its brands that have created a global waiting list of more than 200,000 vehicles.

“There is no change in the business direction whatsoever,” Nick Connoll, the Global External Corporate Communications Manager for Jaguar Land Rover, told Drive from the UK.

“Things are getting better. We are starting to see some positivity coming in.

“We’ve definitely seen some green shoots in terms of semiconductors.”

Mr Connoll said Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has been battling production difficulties for more than two years, largely because of the semiconductor shortage, and had developed the new production plan as a way to recover from the troubles.

It had struggled because of the amount of technology in its latest vehicles and its heavy reliance on the microchips needed to built them.

The Jaguar executive also insisted the recent departure of Jaguar Land Rover’s CEO Thierry Bollore after two years in the role – who was the driving force behind the company’s switch to electric power – would have no impact on the business.

The foundations of Mr Bollore’s plans include changing Jaguar to an all-electric brand from 2025 to ‘realise its unique potential’, and phasing out diesel and rolling out electric power in Land Rovers over the next 14 years.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has defended its latest move on production and insists it is not cutting numbers. Instead, it is about managing the allocation of parts – including semiconductors – to maximise its build rate on high-demand vehicles.

Even so, its sales have nose-dived in recent years, both globally and in Australia. Its word-wide result peaked at 614,000 in 2018 but dropped to 439,000 in 2021, while the Australian total was 3008 in 2016 but has fallen steadily since then – even before Covid hit – with another 41.9 per cent fall in the first ten months of this year for a total of just 665 cars by the end of October.

“We continue to actively manage the operational patterns of our manufacturing plants whilst the industry experiences ongoing global semi-conductor supply chain disruption. Demand for our vehicles remains strong,” JLR said in an official brand statement.

“We expect our performance to continue improving in the second half of the year, as new agreements with semiconductor partners take effect, enabling us to build and deliver more vehicles to our clients.”

Mr Connell confirmed the electrification plan at Jaguar still included an all-new mechanical architecture to underpin all three future models – but the executive would not give any other details.

“There be three brand-new, all-electric performance vehicles,” he said.

“The current nameplates will be the last iteration of what we call current Jaguar.”

“People still want our vehicles and we still want to build them for them.”

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