2013 Land Rover Range Rover Sport 4x4 Hse 4dr Suv on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Jaguar Land Rover rescues British off-road tuner Bowler

Jaguar Land Rover's Special Vehicles Operation (SVO) rescued British off-road tuner Bowler from an uncertain fate. The firm has worked with Land Rover in the past, but it has always been independent. While JLR isn't in an ideal position to make acquisitions, and its recent financial troubles are well documented, Bowler was on the brink of shutting down. The small, 34-year old company had entered administration, and the 26 people it employed risked losing their jobs. Monetary details haven't been released, meaning we don't know how much Bowler was worth, but the firm pointed out it's now fully owned by SVO. It joins SV, Vehicle Personalization, and Classic as the division's fourth pillar. It's too early to tell precisely where Bowler will fit in the JLR latticework, because the initial focus will be on stabilizing the company. It will remain based in Belper, England, and every member of its full-time staff has been offered a position as a JLR employee. Bowler made a name for itself by turning the original Defender into a rally car, and Land Rover said the expertise it acquired during decades of racing is highly sought after, so that's a hint we'll see more hardcore models developed jointly by the two companies sooner or later. The new Defender would lend itself well to the Bowler treatment. The Bowler name could replace the SVX nameplate used on the stillborn, V8-powered Discovery, for example. The tuner's focus on off-pavement performance means we're unlikely to see a Bowler-badged Jaguar, but anything is possible as global demand for SUVs (especially quick ones) continues to rise. What's certain is that, once Bowler is stable, it will grow bigger.

Jaguar Land Rover to cut $6.8 billion in costs

Jaguar Land Rover reduce costs by $6.8 billion and will push annual production volume to 1 million vehicles under a secret project called Leap 4.5, according to Reuters. The British automaker wants to achieve these ambitious goals by the end of the decade to compensate for the changing market in China and to counteract the price of meeting stricter emissions standards around the world. Leap 4.5 won't mean firing workers or cutting the automaker's $4.5 billion annual research budget. JLR will instead find savings by underpinning more models with modular platforms and by adjusting its supply chain. Future factories like the one in Brazil and the proposed plant in Slovakia also won't be affected by the new strategy. Globally, JLR continues to grow, and deliveries are up two percent through October 2015 to 390,965 vehicles. Business just last month was up 24 percent year-over-year to 41,553 units. However, the auto market's downturn in China has taken a bite out the automaker's success because volume dropped there 32 percent in the third quarter, Reuters reported. A global volume of 1 million vehicles will mean more than doubling 2014's 462,678 deliveries, but JLR has made significant investments to boost production recently. In addition to the future factories, it opened its first plant in China last year and an engine assembly site in the UK. The company also signed a deal with Magna Steyr in 2015 to build an upcoming model in Austria. Related Video:

Jaguar Land Rover to cut workforce by 2,000 in push toward electric future

Jaguar Land Rover said on Wednesday it would cut 2,000 jobs from its global salaried workforce, just days after announcing its luxury Jaguar brand will be entirely electric by 2025 and e-models of its entire lineup will be launched by 2030. "The full review of the Jaguar Land Rover organization is already under way," the company said in an emailed statement. "We anticipate a net reduction of around 2,000 people from our global salaried workforce in the next financial year," it said. However, it added that the organizational review did not impact hourly paid, manufacturing employees. JLR, owned by India's Tata Motors, said earlier that its Land Rover brand will launch six fully electric models over the next five years, with the first in 2024. Known for its iconic, high-performance E-Type model in the 1960s and 1970s, Jaguar faces the same challenges as many other carmakers as it transitions to electric vehicles while trying to retain the feeling and power of a luxury combustion engine model. Last month, Tata Motors said it was concerned by semiconductor shortages and Brexit-related supply disruptions as its luxury car sales recover, although the Indian automaker added these had not yet hit production. Tata Motors posted three straight quarters of losses as the COVID-19 crisis dented sales, exacerbating uncertainties over Britain's exit from the European Union, weak demand and rising costs, but had bounced back to clock a profit in its third quarter to the end of December. The 2,000 reduction in JLR's non-factory jobs was reported earlier on Wednesday by Sky News.