New Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bolloré announced the new plan for the company’s future last week, with a focus on electric power and increasing profits.
New Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bolloré announced the new plan for the company’s future last week, with a focus on electric power and increasing profits.
The new direction is called the Reimagine plan, and the focus is above all else on electrification – a new direction demanded by regulations in many countries. In the next five years, Land Rover intends to launch six fully electric variants, with the first coming in 2024. Presumably, this will mostly involve introducing electric variants of existing models, instead of introducing new electric-only models.
Simultaneously, Jaguar will become a fully-electric brand by 2025, finding a direction for the struggling brand. The intent is that by 2030, 100% of Jaguar sales will be all-electric, and about 60% of Land Rover vehicles will be battery-powered only.
As Land Rover is not going fully-electric, it will still offer a combination of powertrains. Diesel will be available until 2026, when it is intended to be phased out. There will still be electrified gasoline-powered engines, such as the current Ingenium mild hybrid motors that are available in most Land Rover models.
JLR is also looking at a push towards hydrogen power as another alternative fuel. With the development of the fuel cell economy, hydrogen powered prototypes will be hitting the road in the UK within the next 12 months. It seems like hydrogen may have a space in the alternative fuels world alongside battery power, so it’s a smart secondary path in the quest for greener powertrains.
JLR is also looking to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its supply chain, products, and operations by 2039.
Land Rover will use two platforms in their future models. The MLA Flex platform will come first (MLA means “Modular Longitudinal Architecture”), presumably beginning with the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. This will carry electrified internal-combustion mild hybrid engines first, before accepting full electric powertrains. MLA platform development will be based at Solihull, alongside Jaguar’s specialized BEV platform.
The EMA (Electric Modular Architecture) will come next, with production based at the Halewood plant building Range Rover Evoques and Discovery Sports. This architecture will also accept electrified internal combustion powerplants, and presumably will define the future difference between the full-size Land Rovers and the smaller variants.
All of this change will come alongside a plan to increase profits, which are already growing after a difficult period of realignment. The company will find itself “rightsizing” towards a goal of double-digit profits before taxes and positive cash flow, looking to be on much stronger financial footing by 2025.
All of this will be a lot of change at Land Rover, but will be necessary with changing consumer demand and government regulation.
Watch the announcement video here:
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