Land Rover 2024: Outlook On the Year Ahead

Even though we're already a month into the year, it's not too late to look at what's ahead for Land Rover, and as a whole for JLR, in 2024.

The story at JLR this year will be a bit less about Land Rover and a bit more about Jaguar. With two of Land Rover's three sub-brands totally relaunched in the past few years, there will be none of the whirlwinds we've had since 2019, with all-new designs hitting left and right between Defender and Range Rover. Though there are certain to be some new things yet to come this year on the SUV side of things, the only product family that's waiting on major redesigns is Discovery, and all news sources suggest that the future of the 35-year-old Discovery brand is still not firmed up as Land Rover debates where to go from here after the soft-selling Discovery 5.

This will be the year of Jaguar, as the storied sports car marque lives its final year as a gasoline-powered company. For model year 2025, the entire company will relaunch as all-electric, moving far upmarket into the realm of Bentley and Rolls Royce along the way. The big launches for JLR this year will be focused on this transition, which has so far been kept almost entirely under wraps.

The first of these Jaguar EVs will be a four-door Grand Tourer, built at the Solihull factory. This was announced in June alongside various other major announcements from JLR, including the disaster that was the "House of Brands" announcement. The announcement also stated that this EV would have a 430-mile range, on the generous side of current EV ranges, helping make it a competitive choice.

Indeed, it will be a very electric year, as the Range Rover Electric will likely hit showroom floors at some point in 2024. The waitlist for the EV Rangie opened in December, with deliveries expected later this year. Presumably, it'll share tech with the new Jaguar EVs, though the Jaguars will be on their own Jag-specific platform.

On the Defender side of things, this will be an interesting year, both for new vehicle sales and the secondary market. The Defender has lived under the cloud of Covid ever since its launch, whether it was production issues during lockdowns or supply chain issues. This year will bring the first full year of unencumbered production, so there should be fewer issues if you want to buy a new Defender. There will be more new vehicles on lots ready to go (and maybe even make a deal on), and less of a reliance on special orders and "take what you can get." With the production lines more open, there also might be more special editions.

On the pre-owned Defender front, this looks like the year that it'll be easier for a second owner to get into an L663, and online classifieds so far suggest that the earliest 2020 models may start depreciating this year to a point that a new demographic of secondary market buyers will be able to access a Defender. The earliest 2020 vehicles are now four years old, and many have over 50,000 miles on them. Early owners will also start trading their vehicles in, as they find themselves at the natural point for "something new."

As it becomes easier for new vehicle buyers to go to a dealer and get what they want, there will be less demand on the secondary market to fill the gap of "a Defender, no matter what it is." This may impact the aftermarket parts market as well. Defender broke the recent trend of Land Rovers not hitting the trail until their second or third owner, but the secondary market will start taking them to the dirt even more, and the vehicles will start really becoming the off-road and overland beasts they were built to be.

It's probably fair to guess that the Range Rover Electric won't be the only major electrified Land Rover launched this year. There have been rumblings about a Defender EV, and it's also about time to have early leaks and releases about the next-generation smaller Land Rovers (Discovery Sport, Range Rover Evoque, and maybe Range Rover Velar), which are supposed to go to the electric-only EMA platform for their next generation. The Halewood factory that builds the small vehicles will be going all-electric as well. While JLR still has a lot more eggs in the combustion power basket than most other automakers through the flexible MLA chassis in the full-size vehicles, this will be the year that they catch up to the market on electrification.

Of course, Land Rover always has a surprise or two up their sleeve, and that's part of the fun of being an enthusiast! With the big 75th anniversary year behind us, it's a year to look forward to new technology and new concepts as the auto industry shifts.