AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/24 Report--

After Jaguar Land Rover welcomed former Mercedes-Benz executive Wu Chen in March, it recently welcomed Liu Zhanzhu, former deputy general manager of Lantu Automobile sales and Service Co., Ltd. According to several media reports, Pan Qing, President and CEO of Jaguar Land Rover China, has sent personnel appointment emails to employees of Jaguar Land Rover China and joint marketing sales and service organizations, announcing that Liu Zhanzhu has joined Jaguar Land Rover as Executive Vice President of Product Management, the main work of which is to support Jaguar Land Rover's "reshaping the future" strategy and "focus Today" product management in China, reporting directly to Pan Qing.

Relevant materials show that Liu Zhanzhu has rich experience in the automotive industry, and has successively served as the senior director of the extreme Krypton Automobile customer Development Center, the head of FAW-Volkswagen Audi Operations Management Department, SAIC GM Buick brand marketing director and other positions. He joined Lantu Automobile in June 2022 as deputy general manager of the sales company, in charge of brand and marketing plate.

It is understood that Jaguar Land Rover's "reshaping the future" strategy was put forward in 2021, mainly in the development focus of electrification, cooperation, and sustainability, focusing on industry trends and local consumer demand for the development and upgrading of products and services, showing new modern luxury in all directions. In the Chinese market, Jaguar Land Rover will continue to increase investment from talent training to capacity improvement, from local manufacturing to R & D, continue to deepen the reform of system capabilities, firmly promote its own high-quality development, and accelerate the landing of global strategies.

On rebranding, Gerry McGovern, Jaguar Land Rover's global chief creative officer, once said: "Brand rebranding is crucial to the landing of Jaguar Land Rover's global strategy to reshape the future. The ultimate goal is to create an extraordinary experience that truly resonates with customers, and over time, the establishment of the long-term value of the brand and the sustainable development of Jaguar Land Rover. "

At the Shanghai Auto Show in April, Jaguar Land Rover announced that it would reorganize its brands, dividing Jaguar Land Rover into range Rover, Guardian, Discovery and Jaguar. According to the official plan, the electric version will be fully launched in 2024, and both the range Rover and the sports version of the range Rover will be launched in full electric version. Within the next decade, all of its models will offer pure electric products, of which Jaguar will become a pure electric luxury brand from 2025. The company also plans to achieve 60 per cent sales penetration of branded pure electric models by 2030.

Of course, the strategy of "reshaping the future" and "rebranding" may have something to do with the current situation of Jaguar Land Rover. According to financial data released earlier by Jaguar Land Rover, Jaguar Land Rover lost 422 million pounds, 861 million pounds and 455 million pounds respectively before tax in the three fiscal years from 2020 to 2022. Although the official quarterly report for the fourth quarter (January-March 2023) showed that Jaguar Land Rover made a pre-tax profit of 368 million pounds in the fourth quarter, turning a profit from the same period last year. In the Chinese market, Jaguar Land Rover sold 25300 vehicles in China in the fourth quarter, up 29.74% from a year earlier. Retail sales in China for the whole fiscal year were 91000, down 5 per cent from a year earlier.

As for Jaguar Land Rover's new strategy, some industry insiders pointed out that if you give up the Land Rover brand, it means that Jaguar Road self-destructs its future. Jaguar Land Rover has limited resources, and a few more brands will not be much better. However, other industry insiders believe that Jaguar Land Rover's new strategy can make its product layout more layered and accelerate the transformation of electrification.

In fact, in terms of electrification, Jaguar Land Rover launched the range Rover Aurora PHEV and the Discovery Sports PHEV, but sales of both models were low. The range Rover Aurora PHEV sold 107 cars in April and found that the sports version of the PHEV sold 108 vehicles, according to the Federation of passengers. At present, in the current serious market environment, Jaguar Land Rover will not only face obstacles from brands from BBA and the second-tier luxury camp, but also face competition from new domestic car-building forces, which is undoubtedly beset with difficulties.

In addition, due to Jaguar Land Rover's domestic joint venture with Chery, both sides wanted to protect their rights and established a joint marketing and service organization IMSS in 2014. It was founded to unify Jaguar Land Rover's sales and channel management in China, so that it can operate efficiently, while maintaining the balance of power in many ways. However, for so many years, the joint marketing sales and service organization IMSS did not achieve the purpose when it was first established. In recent years, the president of IMSS has been changed again and again, and the personnel has changed frequently. In this context, it remains to be seen whether Jaguar Land Rover's "reshaping the future" strategy can be successful.

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