Land Rover name in the firing line as part of brand restructuring.
In a surprise and announcement, Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) has indicated that it is looking into dropping the Land Rover nameplate in favour of marketing the Discovery and Defender as marques of their own under the JLR umbrella.
Reportedly, the move will form part of a bigger restructuring process in which Jaguar-Land Rover will be renamed JLR officially, and the Range Rover as well as Jaguar names kept as they currently are.
For its part, the Land Rover name will be relegated to a so-called trust mark as, according to Head of Design Gerry McGovern, it now makes little sense to keep Land Rover when references are continuously being made to ‘Defender’ and ‘Discovery’ as opposed to Land Rover Defender or Land Rover Discovery.
“The reality is Range Rover is a brand and so is Defender. Customer say they own a Range Rover. In luxury, you need absolute clarity. We love Land Rover, but there isn’t as much equity as Range Rover, and Defender is increasing massively,” McGovern told Britain’s Autocar in a recent interview.
In addition to establishing the Discovery and Defender brands, current JLR CEO, Adrian Mardell, said the process of rebranding existing dealerships to JLR is being planned, which will result in the current Jaguar and Land Rover corporate logos disappearing completely
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Referring to the new JLR as a “house of brands”, Mardell added that the rebranding will be especially person for Jaguar, who will adopt an electric vehicle only policy by 2025.
The leaping cat has already had to institute several changes following the impact of the pandemic and the global semi-conductor shortage, most notably cancelling the almost production-ready new XJ two years ago and stopping further development of the MLA platform that underpins the current Range Rover and Range Rover Sport in the same year.
In January, the automaker confirmed that it managed turn-over a profit of £6-billion (R138-billion) in the third quarter of 2022 after positing record losses throughout much of 2020 and 2021.
“Jaguar Land Rover has returned to profit as chip shortages eased in the quarter and production and wholesales increased. These improved results are testament to the hard work and dedication of our people across the business who have delivered a further increase in production of our new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models,” Mardell said in a statement.
According to the Autocar report, the brand has also managed to reduce waiting periods brought on by the semi-conductor crisis, in being able to deliver vehicles to clients, half of which being a reported 200 000 are Defenders, Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports.
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