1970 Jaguar Xke Convertible on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Jaguar Land Rover Special Vehicle Operations could build standalone models

Jaguar Land Rover may be set to turn its Special Vehicle Operations division into something much bigger than a mere in-house tuner. Bloomberg spoke to the head of JLR's high-performance, customization outfit, John Edwards, who hinted that his team may move beyond simply modifying F-Types, Range Rovers and the like. "We're certainly looking at that, and we've got the capability to do that," Edwards told AN. "Is there an opportunity for us to do a completely standalone car? Maybe." Such a move into full-scale, standalone models would be a big step, particularly for a division that's still kind of in its infancy. Bloomberg references the success of Mercedes-AMG, but the German division has had the benefit of decades of growth. AMG spent years and years building high-performance versions of all manner of mainstream Mercedes vehicles, before moving onto cars like the SLS AMG and AMG GT, which have no mainstream analog. In other words, AMG had a long time to develop a reputation building high-performance vehicles that people know and recognize before it moved into building vehicles of its own. We aren't entirely convinced that SpecOps wouldn't benefit from taking a similar approach, delivering additional SVR vehicles, like the rumored XE SVR, before striking out on its own. We'd like to know what you think, though. Is it already time for Special Vehicle Operations to build standalone models, or should it learn to walk before it runs by modifying more of Jaguar Land Rover's existing product. Have your say in Comments. Related Video:

Jaguar XF Sportbrake teased in Wimbledon promotion

Until this moment, we'd only seen spy photos of the Jaguar XF Sportbrake. Now we get our first official look at the long-roof Jaguar with the above teaser photo. Pleasantly, this isn't an image of the car in shadows, but rather in full light. It happens to be a bird's-eye-view image, so there isn't much we can tell about the car aside from confirming it is indeed a wagon. That's not to say we can't tell anything, though. Close examination of the tail reveals that Jaguar has opted for more conventional, body-colored D-pillars. This is a contrast to the previous XF Sportbrake that featured piano black D-pillar panels that were reminiscent of the ones on the XJ flagship sedan. Another interesting detail is that glass roof. There don't appear to be any seams along it, indicating that this is one massive, fixed panel. Odds are an opening variant is available, but that version probably won't have the same unbroken view of the sky. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. We also get one other teaser of the XF Sportbrake via a video in which Ian Callum talks about lines with the head groundskeeper of Wimbledon. Apparently Jaguar is providing cars for this year's tennis tournament, so some kind of marketing tie-in was inevitable. The video is pretty much what you would expect, with Callum saying flowery things about different kinds of lines and the lines on Jaguars. But at the very end, a silhouette of the XF Sportbrake is shown on the Wimbledon center court. It doesn't show much, but it is something. You can check it out for yourself at the end of the video above. In addition to these teasers, Jaguar announced that the car will be available later this year. No regions were announced, but don't hold your breath for the US market. The previous version was never offered here, and now Jaguar has the American-friendly F-Pace crossover to satiate Jaguar buyers needing more cargo space. So we don't see much of a case for bringing it here. That being said, we would certainly be happy if it came to the States. Related Video:

Jaguar Land Rover names ousted Renault boss as new CEO

LONDON — Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has picked ousted Renault boss Thierry Bollore as its next chief executive, with a mission to return Britain's biggest carmaker to profit after a big hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Bollore took over at Renault in January 2019 after the fall of Carlos Ghosn, but was always viewed as close to the French carmaker's longtime boss and was pushed out in October when the company was looking for a fresh start. Bollore will take over at JLR on Sept. 10, replacing Ralf Speth, whose tenure ends after more than 10 years. "It will be my privilege to lead this fantastic company through what continues to be the most testing time of our generation," Bollore said in a statement on Tuesday. JLR was hit this year first by disruption to sales in China and then by lockdowns across Europe and North America as the COVID-19 outbreak spread around the globe. In 2019, it cut jobs to address tumbling diesel sales, which helped it return to profit. But as the pandemic struck, it slumped to a pretax loss of 422 million pounds ($545 million) for the year ended March 31, 2020. The company has already taken steps to tackle the crisis, including agreeing to a loan facility of around $700 million with lenders in China and further staff reductions. JLR is also in talks with the British government over potential support, according to media reports. Bollore takes over a business that built just over 500,000 cars in 2019/20. He faces a number of tasks, including how to handle the Jaguar brand, which underperforms the Land Rover marque, how quickly to electrify its lineup and a potential hit from Brexit if trade barriers are imposed. JLR has a partnership with BMW on electrification, and parent company Tata Motors recently recommitted to the company. "Tata Group recognizes and values Jaguar Land Rover's future potential highly," said JLR Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran earlier this month. "That is why this company is central to our global automotive presence – a presence that we intend to develop for years to come." Related Video:         (Additional reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru and Gilles Guillaume in Paris; editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)