Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bolloré is stepping down from the role, less than two years after arriving at the Gaydon company.
His departure was attributed to “personal reasons” and will take effect officially on 31 December 2022. As of today (16 November), CEO responsibilities will be taken on by chief financial officer Adrian Mardell, who has been at the firm since 1990 and joined the company board in 2019.
Bolloré's departure comes less than two years after he announced a dramatic and wide-reaching transformation plan for the company under the 'Reimagine' banner, focused on electrifying the product line-up, decarbonising its operations and boosting the quality of the cars it builds.
The strategy was headlined by the repositioning of Jaguar as an all-electric luxury brand from 2025, and by the axing of the marque's then-imminent electric XJ luxury saloon, which had already reached an advanced stage of development. As part of Reimagine, Bolloré said every Land Rover would be offered with an electric powertrain by the end of the decade.
Bolloré most recently appeared at JLR's third quarter financial presentation, where he warned that the ongoing semiconductor supply crisis would take "years" to resolve, amid a backdrop of towering order books (the company says it has a record 205,000 currently to fulfil), rising production costs and supply chain difficulties.
JLR narrowed its losses to £173 million in the third quarter of 2022, compared with £302m in the same period last year and £524m in the second quarter, but a huge surge in demand for its new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models put a strain on its restricted production capacity.
A statement from JLR parent company Tata Motors said: “Mr Thierry Bolloré has today tendered his resignation as the Chief Executive Officer of Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc, UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company due to personal reasons.
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Think these opinions are a bit unfair on him. Two years in the automotive world isn't very long. He has made changes that should set the company in a better direction. You have to consider what he picked up from the previous ceo. The company was in bad shape. As the article suggests they have had some gigantic challenges and still have some gigantic challenges. You'll only be able to judge his inputs in 2-3 years time. Or longer. We don't know on the outside what Jaguar are really doing now but there have been rumours that they will make a strong comeback. For jags troubles you have to look at the path that was set 10 years ago. it was wrong and it clearly didn't work. Just look at the sales figures. Xe was a disaster and I pace was interesting but uncomfortable in execution. The brand was camped out in the wrong field. Let's hope it finds it way back. Shame to see such a historic company in such a precarious state.
Yet the XE wasn't the disaster you claim, but then it didn't compete 1 to 1 with other brands. It didn't have the low powered 3 cylinder engines of BMW or small capacity highly turboed of Merc etc. It was also more advanced with the aluminium body too.
And the F-Pace was one of Jaguar's biggest sellers, something they struggled to satisfy demand with. No other SUV looks as good as the F-Pace.
Jaguar needed a 1-Series or A-Series rival, to more compete with the other prestidge brands and to also provide a step into the brand. They also needed a TT rival, something which would have been amazing! Success of the smaller E-Pace showed a desire for an entry level.
Bollore dropped the new XJ citing the platform was too old to be released, then went ahead releasing that platform in the new Range Rover and Sport.
Where I will agree is the failure on the I-Pace. Jaguar spent too long promoting how good it looked rather than the technical advantages it had over rivals, and at the time there were only Tesla! Even when others from Audi and Merc appeared, the Jaguar was still superior as proven by reviewers testing the models. Just revewer's snobbery for those brands stopped it from being crowned winners in those tests. But the failure of Bollore was to update the I-Pace during his two years there. Jaguar was for a long time ahead of the competition with the I-Pace but failed to capitalise on it because those in marketing haven't a clue.
Jaguar sold out their brand position and compromised their products to chase big volumes to be like bmw. The problem was they didn’t have core strength and sufficient appeal. They came down to a lower altitude where they had no customers and offered products that weren’t sufficiently modern. The F pace was ok but never outsold the equivalent Velar on the other side of the showroom.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Jaguar as a brand, the ftype is lovely. I really hope they have something incredible up their sleeve.
I have to say I'm happy he's gone, Jaguar has been invisible for last few years, the range needed investment - the XJ EV might not have been the perfect car but I would have put it into the market to show what was coming, the pace shows Jaguar has the talent to deliver great products. I fear they have left it too late but I hope not
As a customer who's been waiting over 18 months thanks to his policies, all I have to say is good riddance. Destroyed Jaguar and tried his best for non-Range Rover branded products too.