JLR axed electric Land Rover, Jaguar on MLA platform to focus on better tech

Jaguar Land Rover canceled a planned Land Rover full-electric SUV and scaled back its program of new vehicles on the flexible Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) platform because they would not meet the automaker’s emissions and technology requirements, executives said.

Chief Financial Officer Adrian Mardell told analysts on an investor call that JLR has ended development of vehicles on the so-called MLA-mid platform, including a full-electric Jaguar XJ sedan and a full-electric Land Rover.

The MLA platform will be now be used solely by large Land Rover SUVs, including the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport.

The electric Land Rover was likely to have been the lower-riding "Road Rover" code-named L392, which has been reported in the automotive press but never officially announced. The Jaguar J-Pace electric SUV, also never officially revealed, is likely to be another casualty.

JLR will write off 1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) of investment related to those products as part of the company’s "Reimagine" strategy, Mardell told financial analysts on the investor call on Friday.

"There are costs involved, including the cancelation of the MLA-mid program, the XJ replacement and the Land Rover BEV," Mardell said. The investment due to be written off had largely been made in 2019.

Jaguar Land Rover had intended for the MLA platform, which supports full-electric, plug-in hybrid and internal combustion engine drivetrains, to underpin nearly all its models by 2025, according to a presentation the company showed to investors in 2018.

The UK automaker plans to make the Jaguar brand all-electric starting in 2025, dropping combustion engines as the brand's sedans and crossovers reach the end of their life cycles. Land Rover will get its first battery-powered vehicle in 2024 but will not be electric-only in the near term.

Smaller Land Rovers including the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport will now use a new platform from 2025 called Electrical Modular Architecture that is described as "BEV native" and can incorporate combustion engines in plug-in hybrid or hybrid format.

JLR is looking for a partner for a new electric platform for future battery-powered Jaguars.

The reason for cutting the MLA-mid program was partly because it would not have helped JLR make deep enough emissions cuts, Mardell said. "Reimagine is about being one step ahead on compliance. The current MLA program would not have done that for us," he said. "We would have been in catch-up in this compliance and that just isn't good enough in this industry today."

JLR said on Jan. 29 that it now expects a fine of 35 million pounds for missing its 2020 European Union CO2 reduction target.

On the investor call, Mardell said that JLR had decided that cars on the platform, including the XJ, would not meet the company’s ambition to lead on technology and design as it seeks to return to sustainable profitability.

"[The XJ] will not be ahead of the tech curve. It wouldn't have that modern luxury, that future Jaguar vision, that drop-dead aspiration that we need to make this brand work," Mardell said in an impassioned pitch to investors. "That's why the brand worked 30 years ago, 40 years ago. We have got to capture that for this to be actually cash generative and EBIT positive. So we had to make a tough decision."

JLR is keeping MLA for large Land Rover SUVs. "MLA has not gone altogether – we have amazing products on MLA -- the Range Rover, the Range Rover Sport," Mardell said. Both models, which Mardell described as "two of our biggest hitters" will be refreshed within 12-18 months, he said.

Jaguar Land Rover will move its products upmarket as part of the Reimagine strategy. "Our models returning the lowest profitability will make room for those that make the best return," CEO Thierry Bollore said.

Mardell said the company had abandoned the target of 1 million annual sales to focus on selling profitably at around 400,000-450,000 cars a year.

The company's global vehicle sales fell 24 percent to 425,974 last year, it said on Jan. 11. Of those sales, 323,480 were Land Rovers, down 18 percent, and 102,494 were Jaguar models, down 37 percent.