All-electric by 2030 but Jaguar Land Rover signals it will employ fewer people too

15th February 2021 | Commercial Energy

The new chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has set out his vision for the future of the company. Thierry Bollore pledged that every model JLR produces will have the option of a battery electric engine by 2030 and that he will make the company a “net zero carbon business” by 2039. The roll-out of electric and hybrid cars at JLR has been sluggish. The company only has one “all-electric” model, the Jaguar iPace, which has won lots of awards but accounts for only 4% of sales.

Last year, JLR was fined £35 million for failing to hit EU emissions targets. On Monday morning, Thierry Bollore pledged that the effort to make its cars less polluting would accelerate “at full-throttle”. Jaguar’s fleet will be all-electric “from 2025”. Land Rover’s will take longer to go green – the first battery electric vehicle won’t be produced until 2024.

Jaguar Land Rover

JLR is developing fuel-cell technology that uses hydrogen gas to generate electricity to power cars and produces zero emissions. So far, so positive. Climate change demands that we live our lives in radically different ways and JLR, sensibly, plans to march in pace with the times. But the transformation required is considerable. As it stands, 57% of the cars it sold last year were pure petrol or diesel engines. The company has made it clear where it wants to end-up, it hasn’t really said how it will get there. We have the destination but not the roadmap.

Bollore said JLR will make fewer models and use fewer platforms in future. He speaks of prioritising “quality and profits over volume” and or “right sizing the business.” These are pretty clear indications that JLR will produce fewer cars going and will need fewer people as a result.

“JLR has essentially set out a target to meet the government’s 2030 target for going electric, starting with Jaguar becoming an upmarket competitor to Tesla from 2025,” says Professor David Bailey of the Birmingham Business School. “Overall, this is a welcome move but remember that JLR is playing catch up. This will mean job losses but how many is not clear.”

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https://www.itv.com/news/2021-02-15/a-complete-renaissance-jaguar-land-rover-to-become-electric-only-by-2025