JLR decides to axe the Land Rover brand


Jaguar Land Rover (JRL), which is now Indian-owned by Tata, has confirmed new plans to drop the iconic Land Rover brand.

The company revealed this week that it would scrap the Land Rover name for its range of 4×4 models.

It will instead focus branding as Range Rover, Defender, Discovery, as well as Jaguar.

There is no place for its 75-year-old Land Rover oval in its new ‘House of Brands’ retail and marketing strategy.

As a next step within its ‘Reimagine’ strategy, JLR claims that this move to a ‘House of Brands’ approach is designed “to amplify the unique character of each of its brands as part of a vision to become the world’s most desirable modern luxury automotive brands for the most discerning clients”.

One dealer told autotrade.ie that he was “astounded” that such a proven branding asset of the business, as the Land Rover name, was being discarded.

There is already great discontent and concern among many franchisees of a lot of brands over uncertainty for the future.

The roll-out of agency model of new car retailing by some, the transition to electric only vehicles, the changing values of existing trade-in models and now electric second-hands, as well as other difficulties, have many dealers asking serious questions about the way forward.

A big issue with many dealership is the costs of corporate brand identity changes in dealerships, such as what is proposed by removing the Land Rover branding and bringing in the new House of brands in Jaguar Land Rover retail outlets.

In JLR’s case, it had introduced the expensive JLR signature ‘Arch’ concept branding in the last six or so years, which accommodated the housing both Jaguar and Land Rover brands under one roof.

The Jaguar Land Rover corporate name will in future only be referred to by JLR. The only reprieve for the brand name will be that some models will carry the badging inside and out as a ‘trust mark, according to JLR.

Big investment in electrifying plants and adding new models
In good news from JLR, it also confirmed this week that it is investing £15 billion over five years in electrifying its vehicle operations, autonomous driving, AI and digital technologies, as well as people skills.

Its Halewood plant in Merseyside, England, is to become an all-electric manufacturing facility, with its Wolverhampton engine manufacturing centre to be renamed the Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre.

In addition, the first of three reimagined modern luxury electric Jaguars will be a four-door GT built in Solihull, just outside Birmingham. The word is that it will come with more power than any previous Jaguar, and a range up to 700km.

The first of its next generation medium-size modern luxury SUVs will be an all-electric model from the Range Rover family, launching in 2025.

Meanwhile, JLR will retain the flexible modular longitudinal architecture (MLA) on which Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are built, therefore offering internal combustion engine (ICE), hybrid and battery electric vehicle (BEV) options.