2020 Land Rover Range Rover Hse on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Check out King Charles III's $17.6 million car collection

King Charles III's coronation will take place in England on May 6, and being crowned a monarch comes with a long list of perks with four wheels. He will gain full access to the Royal Family's fleet of cars, which is valued at about GBP14 million (approximately $17.6 million). The two most expensive cars in the collection are nearly identical: they're a pair of Bentley State Limousine models (pictured) built for Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III's mother, in 2002. Only two units were made, and they're both part of the Royal Family's fleet, so they're difficult to put a value on; it's not like one is going to end up listed on your favorite auction site anytime soon. British company Nationwide Vehicle Contracts, which compiled the list, estimates that each armored, 245-inch long sedan is worth at least GBP10,000,000 (roughly $12.6 million). Dropping below the eight-digit threshold, the second-most-valuable car in the Royal Family's fleet isn't really a car. It's the Gold State Coach, which Matchbox recently released a 1/64-scale replica of, and its value is estimated at GBP1.6 million (about $2 million). At 275 inches long it's even bigger than the Bentley limousine and it weighs about 9,000 pounds. It's 261 years old and designed to be pulled by eight horses, and has been part of every coronation since 1831. The rest of the Royal Family's vehicles are relatively mundane. There's a 1965 Aston Martin DB6 Volante that Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Phillip, bought for King Charles III on his 21st birthday. It's worth GBP1 million (about $1.2 million). The collection also includes a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI (about $627,000), a Bentley Bentayga (about $201,000), a Land Rover Range Rover long-wheelbase Landaulet ($133,000), a Jaguar XE (about $41,000), and a Land Rover Defender ($38,000). "Luxury cars have long been associated with the monarch and King Charles III, in particular, is known for his fondness of motor vehicles. His impressive collection features sentimental value with motors passed down from his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, to cars bought for him by his parents," explained Keith Hawes, the director of Nationwide Vehicle Contracts, in an interview with CBS News. Being at the head of a car-making nation's royal family also comes with drawbacks: Every vehicle in King Charles III's fleet is British.

Tata to shed 1,100 Jaguar Land Rover jobs after coronavirus hits earnings

BENGALURU — India's Tata Motors Ltd expects to shed about 1,100 temporary jobs at Jaguar Land Rover after it raised the cost-cutting target at its luxury unit by 1 billion pounds ($1.26 billion) to ride out the disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Tata Motors expects to save 5 billion pounds in costs by March 2021 at its Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) unit, the Indian automaker's Chief Financial Officer PB Balaji said on Monday, adding 3.5 billion pounds of the savings had already been achieved. It will also reduce capital expenditure at JLR to 2.5 billion pounds for the current fiscal year, from the more than 3 billion pounds it has spent annually in previous years. "Conserving cash and prioritizing capital expenditure, and targeting investment spending to the right areas is our focus," Balaji told reporters, after the company posted a fourth quarter loss. We anticipate that up to 1,100 agency employees will be affected, a JLR spokeswoman said in a separate statement. Tata Motors is reviewing all its businesses and would consider exiting those that do not add strategic value, as part of a broader effort to save 60 billion rupees ($789 million) in its domestic business in the fiscal year to 2021. The automaker on Monday posted a consolidated fourth quarter net loss of 98.94 billion rupees, as coronavirus lockdowns across its markets ravaged sales, including at JLR. Total revenue from operations fell 27.7% to 624.93 billion rupees in the quarter, which ended March 31. JLR, which contributes the bulk of Tata Motors' revenues, reported a pre-tax loss of 501 million pounds for the period after it took a hit of 800 million pounds because of the novel coronavirus, Balaji said. He said there were signs sales were recovering in China, one of JLR's biggest markets, as well as in the United States and in Europe, with strong orders for Land Rover's sport-utility vehicle Defender and Range Rover's Evoque. JLR's boss Ralf Speth, who has led the company since 2010, will step down from his role at the end of his contract term in September. ($1 = 76.0446 Indian rupees) ($1 = 0.7954 pounds) (Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru and Aditi Shah in New Delhi; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Sriraj Kalluvila)

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)