There is a Big article in Financial Times about JLR today and the issues shown up by the China slowdown. Main points
-Heavily dependent upon Range Rover for profits, just 3 models account for 80% of earnings
-It has been hard hit by the China slowdown, China accounts for 50% of profits.
-Made a loss in last quarter
-Company may have overstretched itself
-Evoques no longer selling well in China and customers have not taken well to locally made ones.
-Evoque gearbox recall have done a lot of damage.
-They lost a lot of vehicles in the explosion in Tianjin port.
-Embarking on a £4.5b cost cutting programme as Tata can't subsidise them (think Tata Steel issues)
-Trying to cut costs by platform sharing with Jaguar
-JLR needs to launch some small cars like BMW 1 series, Audi A1, Mercedes A class
-JLR is way behind its rivals in developing common vehicle chassis and shared parts, a strategy adopted by all large carmakers in recent decades.
- No mention of Defenders.

JLR’s existing platforms are also inefficient, according to consultants who have stripped down and evaluated similar cars. One architecture, for the Land Rover Discovery, has about 25 per cent more parts and far more joining elements than the competitor platforms used for the BMW X5 series, Audi Q7 and Mercedes GLE class. This leads to more weight and higher manufacturing costs. 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

Interesting article, thanks for posting that.

I think anyone who has / had an LR especially a disco / RR will appreciate how they are built differently to the common herd, and thank goodness for it.

Lets keep our fingers crossed & hope they don't go the way of Saab.


PS - Great Tricolour banner, brilliant, well done Freel2 FL2 Ex D2, D3, RRS, etc. now all gone.

The new Disco will be built on the D7u platform as per the Range Rover/Sport, should save a bit there. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

I have read such a load of rubbish. Typical press putting a downer on things.

No Platform sharing?

Jaguar XE, XF, F-Type and F-Pace are all built on the same RWD platform. This platform will serve all RWD cars produced by JLR, with the option of AWD from the same platform.

Range Rover Sport, Range Rover, New Discovery are built on the same 4x4 platform. 4x4 applications are different to a RWD based AWD system. This is where LR stand out from the crowd as the competition use an AWD set up for their SUV's.

Evoque, Discovery Sport and new forth coming baby Disco and baby Range rover use the same FWD platform.

I was at the Solihull plant last week, and they have an Jag XE, RR, RRS Disco and now Jag F-Pace rolling off the production line very 2 minutes, and every single unit is a sold vehicle.

F-Pace building up for demo and press units.

The press are using the Chinese turndown to make their papers sell. JLR are in a fine position at present and the investment spent over the past few years is complete.

Of course Tata need to see a return on their investment, and now JLR must deliver. Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

I can't comment on the authenticity of the details in the FT article however, it's worth remembering that the FT is not a populist newspaper and tends to concentrate on the business metrics rather than just reporting on what everyone already knows. After all, history is abound with cases of firms that suddenly find they are in trouble yet the factories are in full swing. Who would have thought that the likes of Rolls Royce, Tesco, BP, Glencore, VW etc could run into trouble so quickly. I only drew the highlights from the article but I think they were sounding warning generally bells about JLR expansion in China, South America etc just as the economy turns down. Hence the £4.5b cost savings required. They won't be the only ones.

So did you see any baby Freelanders in gestation by any chance? 3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

It was a criticism of the article. Not yourself.

Not at Solihull, but I have seen the test mules at Gaydon. Think Audi Q3/Nissan Juke size, and you won't be far wrong.

These two cars can't come out soon enough, as JLR need something from the £20k mark again to bridge the gap left by the entry level Freelander 2.

The two cars will be identical underneath, but one will be a Range Rover and the other a Discovery. There is strong talk that the Discovery version may be called the Discovery Freelander!

The Discovery 4 replacement won't be called Discovery 5, and could be Called Discovery Vision after the concept.

I think the idea is to have the Disco and Range Rover models all have actual names now.

Discovery 'Freelander'' Range Rover 'Baby'
Range Rover Evoque
Discovery Sport. Range Rover 'Grand Evoque'
Discovery 'Vision'. Range Rover Sport
Discovery 'Big Mother'. Range Rover Vogue

Yes there are plans for a big Discovery on the scale of the Toyota Land Cruiser! Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

No offence taken.

Interesting feedback on futures though, I look forward to seeing it happen.

PS did it look as if they are planning to put bigger bearings in the rear diffs ?  3 x FL1 2 manual + 1 auto
5 x FL2 4 manual + 1 auto
Now Discovery Sport P250 MHEV SE

It's a new designer LR need, how can a man in smart suits design a rough tough hardworking vehicle?

The range at the moment IMO is a mess, nothing for less than £30k. Discovery, the cheapest model is £47.5k unless you buy the commercial. Flooding their showrooms with high end cars that are all clones of each other, a long way away from the values of the brand.

What I saw in the Disco Sport and Evoque, I will never know, I should've listened to my doubts about the DS. I'm currently running around in an Evoque at the minute and man, it's bad. It's a 15 reg and rattles badly, problems that were there when I had mine and it was a first build. It's going to be a long week.

They need to get their act together and get these reasonably priced, practical and functional vehicles back in the range, the pricing is going in the wrong direction for many. The expensive range is maybe walking out the showroom at the moment but LRs bubble will burst one day. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

Mav71 (or other LR insider),

Interested in your comments about future models in the range. In particular you mention the common chassis for several FWD models. Does that suggest the Discovery baby (aka Discovery Freelander) will only be 2wd, or is that just one option? I would have hoped LR would realise by now that a lot of current Freelander2 owners are still waiting for a good replacement model which in many cases will still be 4x4, so I hope they will not be disappointed again!

Also not sure I can imagine what a Range Rover Grand Evoque could be; I thought that was what the DS is already!? Similarly isn't the Evoque already a Range Rover "Baby".

Any more info you can reveal would be much appreciated. I really do want another LR vehicle, but not at any cost, financially or functionally. Life is not a dress rehearsal!

When I say a FWD platform, all wheel drive will still be there, but the smaller cars are front wheel drive biased with a transverse engine layout.

The two new baby's will be FWD and AWD.

Your right about confusion about a Grand Evoque. To me this would simply be a Disco Sport with higher pricing!

I have to say, I like the Discos Sport , but I have to look at it as a vehicle in its own right, not as a replacement for my Freelander.

I am in two minds whether to buy a late 64/15 plate Freelander Metropolis so that I have a nearly new Feeelander to last me a few years, or just keep the one I have now. Logic would say to keep the one I have.

But in all honestly, the diesel bible will burst in the next 5 years or so and LR are rumoured to have scrapped the petrol Disco Sport, so I may end up with a Jaguar F-Pace in the future, or the Mercedes GLC. Freelander 2 HSE Lux 2013MY - Barolo Black with Ivory Leather. Alpine DVD - Privacy -Evoque 20" Dynamic Wheels and more to come.........

The petrol and diesel ingenium engine are built around a a common block, which has been modified for the petrol engine. If the diesel bubble does burst the petrol engine is available and could slot straight in.

Gav

The perhaps oddly named Jaguar F-Pace may well be worth a look next year, though I fear it too may be a lower driving position than I currently enjoy just like the DS. We'll see.

We don't seem to hear much now on the much heralded LR diesel (or petrol) hybrid that was going to take the market by storm. What happened?  Life is not a dress rehearsal!

Agree F-pace is terrible name. Concept name CX-17 was better.
You could wait for the RR version due to follow! If you can afford it.
I thought hybrid FFRR and RRS were out. They drove some across the Silk road to India some time ago FL2 11 S Black 😂
Gone Disco2 TD5 GS

Mav71 wrote:

I have read such a load of rubbish. Typical press putting a downer on things.

No Platform sharing?

Jaguar XE, XF, F-Type and F-Pace are all built on the same RWD platform. This platform will serve all RWD cars produced by JLR, with the option of AWD from the same platform.

Range Rover Sport, Range Rover, New Discovery are built on the same 4x4 platform. 4x4 applications are different to a RWD based AWD system. This is where LR stand out from the crowd as the competition use an AWD set up for their SUV's.

Evoque, Discovery Sport and new forth coming baby Disco and baby Range rover use the same FWD platform.

.