What does Thierry Bollore’s abrupt departure mean for Jaguar Land Rover?

Jaguar’s electrification journey had already begun before Bollore’s appointment, with the likes of the i-Pace – a car that was globally well-received and considered a fitting legacy carmaker rebuttal to the likes of Tesla.

The former BMW-engineer-designed and Magna-Steyr-manufactured i-Pace weren’t a bonafide Jag. And while setting the stage for a promising future (including a BMW-JLR alliance for EV components) it was indicative of a deepening identity crisis. With short overhangs, it had the attributes of a sports car married to an SUV – Jaguar’s attempt at pandering to both types of customer, and ultimately, achieving neither. Its ride height could be calibrated to make it more sports car-like or SUV-like. The result was an immensely capable mongrel of a car – one which was praised for its engineering, prompting Jaguar to launch other petrol-powered SUVs and crossovers, despite the i-Pace not being a sales hit.

The SUVs, of course, began cannibalising sales of Land Rovers prompting the newly appointed CEO Bollore to step in like a stern parent and separate the two brands’ roles. Under the “Reimagine” campaign, SUVs were to exclusively be the domain of Land Rover while Jaguar was to find a new identity. This meant that not only would the type of car Jaguar would make be reconsidered, Bollore also wanted the brand to rethink which spectrum of the luxury band Jaguar would operate in, suggesting that it move up a notch and compete with the likes of Bentley and even Rolls Royce. Selling fewer numbers but accruing greater profits.

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Then came a pandemic which, apart from hampering sales, brought huge supply chain constrictions. Things took a turn for the worse with the Russia-Ukraine war and suddenly, Bollore’s plan, which was deemed “ambitious” and “optimistic” in pre-Covid times, seemed even more so in present-day context.

Even after recovering from a sales slump brought on by the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, JLR accrued losses of £868 million (after Bollore injected £1.5 billion into the Reimagine project). Instead of having the aspirational quality of a Bentley or a Rolls Royce and the numbers of BMW, Jaguar is now saddled with the opposite formula.

And while Land Rover’s post-pandemic recovery has been steady, Bollore’s £1.5 billion write down pushed the company in the red, as it would have otherwise recorded a profit of £660 million by the end of March 2021. The loss inadvertently precipitated Bollore’s departure from the brand, even though he couldn’t possibly be blamed for external factors that helped bring about such a situation.

This fiscal year, it was the Range Rover to the rescue. Both the HSE and the Sport model saw healthy demand, and along with the Defender, accounted for 145,000 of the total 205,000 units sold by JLR this fiscal year. But the fact remains, that despite the bump in sales brought-on by new Range Rover models, JLR sales stood at 88,121 units in the July to September quarter, compared to the 92,710 units sold in the same period last year, as per Fortune India.

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With an all-electric Range Rover scheduled for 2024, Land Rover has a much smoother road to tread, unlike Jaguar whose plant in UK again suspended production on November 25, due to chip shortages; and Jaguar, having no high margin product like Land Rover (Range Rover LWB Autobiography and SV being chief of them), must relinquish chip utilisation to the latter.

Much has been speculated about the future of Jaguar. Some have predicted, prematurely, that Tata Motors wishes to divest itself from the brand. Others have predicted the likes of China’s GEELY stepping in and taking over things. Neither of those rumours have held true thus far.

Jaguar has only the i-Pace to show off its EV-making prowess with BMW stepping in for a component-sharing partnership and no further developments taking place since. So the present-day i-Pace is largely similar to the one launched in 2018.

For JLR to succeed as a brand, it has to follow the road map established by Bollore and his predecessor Ralph Speth. But the central issue continues to remain – with Land Rover having a strong-SUV focus, Jaguar, once known for its stylish, sporty sedans and its penchant for bringing performance to the luxury space, is left without a paddle in an SUV-obsessed world. The next five years will prove to be a make-or-break moment for the brand, and it will be a bumpy road.

Tata Motors is unlikely to sell it to a Chinese party, and will likely give the Jaguar conundrum a final crack. Bollore, in his zeal, chose to rebuild and rebrand Jaguar. But perhaps the answer for Jaguar lies in connecting to its roots instead of running away from them. It may not have the software or the powertrain components just yet, but as a legacy maker, Jaguar has an illustrious history of exceptional, sensational design, motorsport pedigree and performance. And while its ICE performance cannot accompany it to the future, its design and aura can.

In a world where start-ups like Lucid and Rimac are attempting to capture audience interest with sedans and super cars, respectively, the most sensible course of action for Jaguar is to distinguish itself by being exclusively being a maker of exceptionally styled sedans and ultra-niche electric super cars. Anything else would be a wasted opportunity.