Automotive News Europe - December 2019 - S17

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

TALK FROM THE TOP

Was it perhaps inevitable that the
Chinese gold rush would end?
In the early 2010s you could shift volume
and make a lot of money on the way. There
is still a lot of gold but it will be more and
more expensive to extract. It's a huge market, 1.4 billion people. However, it's also
becoming probably the world's most aggressive and most fought-over premium
automotive market. It will be a relatively
dirty market [because of the pressure to
discount]. This is a game we don't want to
play. We are relatively small, so we want to
be in enough niches that we can be enticing to enough Chinese customers who say:
"This is exactly what I want." So, when they
say, "Can we have a discount," we say,
"We go out of our way for you, so, I'm sorry,
but that's the price,"

It doesn't have to replace the Defender
because we have given the Discovery its
space back. It would have been very natural to launch the Defender and Discovery
in parallel. That way it would have been
very clear: This is the most capable family
SUV [the Discovery] and this is the most
rugged, unstoppable modern 4x4.
Are you worried about the environmental and safety backlash targeting SUVs?
Zero emissions, zero accidents. That's
our goal and we are on a good path. We
are relentlessly driven to reduce the
number of accidents, but this has nothing to do with the size of the car. It's all
about the car's intelligence.

What about the emissions? What is
your response to those calling for a
Based on that, should Jaguar be mak- ban on SUVs?
ing XE and XFs sedans?
In any walk of life we need choice. We live
It is an entry into our brand, and when in democracies. The effect of different
you look at other premium brands, their car types is much less influential than the
entry level is much lower. In China we drivetrain. We were the first established
produce a stretched version of the XE premium manufacturer to launch an EV
to better appeal to Chinese tastes. We with the Jaguar I-Pace. That's an SUV/
were a bit unlucky in that it launched crossover and it has zero emissions. And
right as the market was crashing, but we if plug-in hybrids are really used smartly,
still believe it's particularly appealing to the CO2 impact is quite minimal.
Chinese customers, because it's still a
huge market for sedans.

Will Jaguar continue to build sports
cars in the future?
Yes. We share a strong belief that Jaguar
should always have a sports car. What
shape or form that will take, we are deep
in that discussion.
The new Jaguar XJ will be based on the
MLA platform for electrified cars. Will
you add combustion engines later?
MLA allows us to be super flexible. There
are big changes ahead with autonomous
cars, connected cars, EVs and car-sharing. The big challenge is forecasting
which of these four will be really relevant
to customers in which market at which
point in time. That means it's no longer
the game of fast swallowing the slow, the
big swallowing the small. The smart and
flexible will be the most successful. This
is a strength of Jaguar Land Rover. We
are relatively small and very flexible. MLA
is one answer. It will deliver outstanding full-electric vehicles, however, there
will still be markets without the charging infrastructure or customer demand,
so, MLA allows us to continue delivering
super-efficient plug-in hybrids or mild hyANE
brids on the same platform.

What does the new Land Rover Defender add for you?
We have been a two-legged stool for a
couple of years. Land Rovers are supposed to be the most capable in their
segment. The Range Rover family adds
refinement and luxury. Discovery adds
versatility. The missing leg on the stool
was Defender, which is about ultimate
4x4 unstoppability. Now we can be
much more specific.
The Defender also looks pretty versatile. Are you worried about taking
customers from the Discovery?
The Discovery creates a whole stream of
customers for whom the Defender is not
the right car. The Defender might draw
them in, but maybe they will think it's perhaps not 100 percent for them, so they
will have a second look at the Discovery.
Are you frustrated that the Discovery
is not doing better?
A little bit. We think it deserves better.
It's a full eight-seater. It's truly versatile.

2019

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Jaguar Land Rover expects a big boost from the new Defender.

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