The success of both Jaguar and Land Rover has astounded many. While the company’s Indian owner, Mr. Tata, must be keen to take credit for the amazing improvements in JLR’s order books, secretly, he must be astonished.
With 360,000 sales a year (80 per cent of them overseas), JLR is also helping Tata’s overall performance look more palatable: demand for Tata’s own-brand cars are suffering after the Indian economy’s recent giddy spell.
Ford, too, must be quietly fuming that they could not achieve the same success with such iconic brands, but while they played a role in JLR’s reinvention, they just didn’t have the reserves of cash that Tata did – or indeed the bravery to invest it if they did.
When it comes to motor breakdown advice, reliability surveys suggest Range Rover and especially Jaguar are increasingly top purchases – something that could not have been said 10 or 20 years ago.
But what is next for these famous ‘British’ brands? Will they ever increase in scale the way German icons such as BMW or Audi have? If they do, they will arguably have to deal with becoming even less British than they are now. A new agreement with Chery Automobile will see JLR cars and utility vehicles assembled in China,which is now the brands’ largest market. Being able to service the feverish Chinese desire for Range Rovers and Jags will increase profits and hopefully, drive further investment into the two product ranges.
A new plant in Saudi Arabia is also planned, giving these luxury vehicles better access to more of those who can afford them.
Assuming Tata continues to value its two UK acquisitions, and it can source the skilled engineers required to develop and build the next generation of Jaguars and Land Rovers, then these brands have every chance of becoming giants.
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