Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is undergoing a major transformation, with a $19bn investment plan to introduce new vehicles, technologies, and manufacturing operations over the next five years. As part of this transformation, JLR will retire the Land Rover name as a vehicle brand, grouping its SUV lineup under three brand families: Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery, with Land Rover retained as an overall trustmark for off-road technology and capability.
JLR’s long-struggling car division, Jaguar, will be reinvented as a high-end EV luxury brand, with its own unique BEV platform and a modernist design philosophy similar to the new Range Rover and Defender models. Jaguar’s first new model, a high-performance four-door GT, will be available for sale in 2025, with a price tag of over $100,000 and a target range of 430 miles. It will be the most powerful Jaguar ever built.
As JLR transitions to producing EV versions of all its models by 2030 and only EVs by 2036, the company is reducing the number of vehicle architectures from seven to three. MLA Flex and EMA will be Land Rover only platforms, while the forthcoming electric Jaguars will be built on a brand new, bespoke platform called JEA. JLR’s executive director of vehicle programs, Nick Collins, says the unique architecture is required to allow the low ride height, low seat height, and dramatic proportions that will be the signature elements of Jaguar’s new design language.
The decision to distance the Land Rover brand name in favor of individualized brands such as Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery isn’t a controversial move, according to JLR Chief Creative Officer McGovern. “The reality is Range Rover is already a brand. So is Defender. We love the Land Rover name, but it doesn’t have as much equity as Range Rover, and Defender is rising fast,” he says. Current buyers of those vehicles use those brand names rather than Land Rover when describing what they drive. A spokesperson added that Land Rover would remain, with the brand’s name on vehicles, reinforcing JLR’s all-terrain credentials and technology capabilities.
JLR’s goal is to become the creator of the world’s most desirable luxury brands, driving a ‘house of brands’ strategy that will elevate the unique characteristics of each of its four uniquely British nameplates. Each brand will have its interpretation of modern luxury: Range Rover’s refined modernism, Defender’s brutalist modernism, Discovery’s eclectic modernism, and Jaguar’s exuberant modernism.
While JLR has successfully capitalized on the boom in high-end SUVs, with Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, and Defender accounting for 76% of JLR’s total sales and shifting the company’s average transaction price from $55,000 per vehicle in 2019 to $88,000, the company has struggled to figure out what to do with Jaguar, a brand long defined by sports cars and luxury sedans. JLR plans to reinvent Jaguar through a radical visual re-imagination of the brand, with a focus on a modernist design philosophy, similar to that seen in the new Range Rover and Defender models. The new models will be available for sale in 2025, and JLR expects them to have a “jaw-dropping” effect on consumers.
