Jaguar Land Rover are two iconic brands in the automotive world.
Rich with heritage an excellent style and performance but each have
also suffered Rocky histories.
And for years each were passed between new owners in Europe and the
U.S. including BMW and Ford.
With BMW owning Land Rover and Ford owning Jaguar in the 80s.
Then just when they were on the verge of bankruptcy the two thoroughly
British sister brands were bought by the Indian, Tata Motors.
Part of the vast Tata Group empire that makes up everything from
software to food products.
When Tata acquired them in 2008, both Jaguar Land Rover had their fair
share of financial struggles and had fought to overcome reputations
for unreliability.
If you were going to say drive across the country in a given vehicle
and hope that everything went well.
Pre-Tata, Jaguar Land Rover would have been one of the last brands I
would have picked to do that in.
I just didn't have faith in their vehicles.
Worse, Tata had bought these brands and perhaps one the worst possible
times in recent history.
Right on the cusp of the financial crisis.
However in the years that followed, Tata Motors did something many
owners had failed to do before turning them into moneymakers.
But things are getting gloomy for jail are once again.
Just as these two legends have finally found some footing a
drastically shrinking market in China for JLR and trouble in Europe
are threatening them once again.
The S&P lowered the credit ratings of both JLR and Tata Motors in
early 2019 and they are now deep in junk status.
The question now?
Will Tata Motors be able to turn around JLR once more or is looking to
cut its losses?
Jaguar was founded in 1922 as the Swallows Side Car company by William
Lyons, a motorcycle enthusiast and engineer.
Back then the company initially made side cars, those little pods that
sit on the side of motorcycles.
But in 1935, Lyons built the S.S.
Jaguar.
It was the first car to bear the Jaguar name.
Over the years the company has made sleek aerodynamic sports cars and
became known for racing.
Number 20 is the winning Jaguar which eventually finish nine laps
ahead of the next car.
Having traveled at an average speed of 93.5
miles an hour.
Perhaps the most famous example was the E-type which Jaguar started
making in the 1960s.
Land Rover had an entirely different history making off-road vehicles
used by the military and bucolic customers in Europe and around the
world starting in 1947.
Over the years Land Rover developed a reputation for making rugged
trucks an SUV with a distinct British touch.
Models such as the defender, developed reputations for ruggedness and
capability rivaled perhaps only by few vehicles such as the Jeep
Wrangler.
Though also extremely capable, the brand's Range Rover was perhaps
what anticipated the trend in high end luxury sports utility
vehicles.
And has even been the target of scorn for its popularity with
well-heeled buyers who never drive the thing off pavement.
The two companies were rejoined under one roof beginning with Ford
buying Jaguar in the late 1980s.
But in terms of fully exploiting the brand name of strength that we
were building up in the company there's no question we should be able
to do a better job with the resources that Ford Motor Company will
make available.
And then in 2000, Ford bought Land Rover.
Ford under went its own troubles in the following years.
It had to sell off many of the premium names they had acquired
including Jaguar and Land Rover.
And another high-end British automaker Aston Martin.
Just eight years after Ford bought Land Rover, Ford sold it and Jaguar
to Tata Motors for about 2.7
billion dollars.
Tata Motors did exactly what many fans and enthusiasts say is the best
thing an owner can do for car companies as legendary as these.
And it paid off.
Jaguar Land Rover didn't really start to become a powerful and
competitive group of brands in the modern automotive world until Tata
took over.
And when Tata inherited both brands and invested the kind of money
that they had long needed invested.
That's when you saw everything from the design to the engineering to
most importantly the quality, reach a level that made them comparable
to things like a BMW or an Audi or a Mercedes.
Up until 2017, it looked like Tata Motors had engineered a lasting
turnaround for the legendary brands.
But things took a turn for the worse in 2018.
JLR posting a loss of about 4.3
billion dollars in fiscal year 2019.
Its biggest loss in the last 10 years.
That loss resulted in a large part from a nearly 4 billion dollar one
time write down.
However even taking that into account the company still would have
lost money.
The company said in January of 2019 that it's cutting 4,500 jobs about
10 percent of its workforce.
Jaguar Land Rovers troubles have hurt parent company Tata motors.
JLR's recent troubles have been one of the factors contributing to
recent declines.
In April 2019, reports surfaced that Tata Motors is considering a sale
of the brands to French car manufacturer PSA.
Reports that Tata Motors denies.
Out of the two brands Land Rovers and the strongest.
But it has struggled as well.
A big part of the problem, Jaguar Land Rover sales in China fell about
26 percent in May and 46 percent in April.
In March 2019, the company said sales in China had fallen 34 percent
for the fiscal 2018 to 2019 year.
It is also facing headwinds in Europe.
Brexit threatens to raise costs.
More than 40 percent materials used travels from the European Union to
the United Kingdom.
And it must contend with increasingly stringent emissions laws in
Europe following the so-called diesel gate scandal that rocked
Volkswagen and other companies in the automotive world.
In a comment to CNBC, Jaguar CEO Ralph space said that:
But the U.S.
may hold the keys for JLR's recovery.
Land Rover's strongest markets in North America where it's in the
fortunate position of being a premium sports utility maker in a time
where U.S.
customers are hungry for SUVs.
JLR sold about 10 times as many SUV as the United States as did
traditional passenger cars in 2018.
Despite the fact that jaguars portfolio is still heavy on sedans and
sports cars.
But Jaguar is leaning into utility vehicles too.
It sold almost twice as many SUVs in 2018 as its famous sports cars
and sedans.
And unlike brands such as Porsche, it's brushing aside the usual
criticism that moving towards utility vehicles is straying away from
its race car roots.
The Jaguar Land Rover CEO also said:
Jaguar
is also stepping forcefully into electric cars with its I-Pace
crossover which has been praised by critics.
The car swept the world car awards at the New York International Auto
Show in 2019.
But North America's continued appetite for its vehicles might not be
enough to engineer a full recovery for the two brands.
Industry analysts worry about a larger downturn in new car sales is
looming.
The easier path is just sell Land Rovers people know them by
Land Rovers.
But they are taking a longer path by of keeping both Jaguar Land Rover
together because there are a couple of restrictions which are coming
in terms of fleet norms and all those things which they need to meet
and hence they can work out.
In the meantime Tata Motors has fended off reports that it's
considering selling the division to PSA group,.
The very same French automaker that bought Opel and Vauxhall car
brands from General Motors and turn them around.
Jaguar Land Rover have history and heritage on their side.
But the global automotive industry is changing rapidly and it's
unknown how much of that history and heritage will count in a
business increasingly obsessed with the future.