JLR electric commitment excites NZ operation

All Land and Range Rovers, Jaguars set to adopt battery-fed drivetrains.

 JAGUAR and Land Rover intent to undertake a full-strength switch to electric powertrains has left the New Zealand distributor eager to learn more.

Steve Kenchington, Jaguar Land Rover New Zealand’s general manager, agrees the customer base – particularly on the Land Rover side – will need time to digest the implication of today’s announcement from the United Kingdom, but personally it’s exciting news.

“This has come as quite a big surprise to us – a pleasant surprise – in what it might it look like and what they are planning. There is much we don’t know.

“What is most exciting for us is that JLR has now defined the future direction for the brands and that this is happening on the back of a significant turnaround for them.”

The strategy unrolled today is for Land Rover to launch six pure electric models within the next five years while its sister brand is to be reimagined as an all-electric luxury marque by 2025.

How that impacts on the makes’ individual model has yet to be spelled out.

Jaguar Land Rover NZ boss Steve Kenchington is excited by today’s news.

Jaguar is already of course engaging in the EV-sphere with its iPace sports utility, a New Zealand Car of the Year winner that accounts for 10 percent of local Jaguar volume.

Yet it still produces its other cars – the E Pace and F Pace SUVs, the F-Type sports cars and XE and XF sedans – in conventional fossil fuelled form.

Today Jaguar also confirmed the replacement XJ large sedan, which had been destined to come out later this year as an electric product, has been abandoned.

The transition period for Land Rover seems to be longer, but the end game will be even more dramatic. The green badge division has some plug-in hybrids and is about to release an update of the Range Rover Sport locally with a new six-cylinder petrol that could, Kenchington agrees, become the last orthodox conventional fossil-fuelled drivetrain it delivers to market.

Next year it will bring out a new Range Rover and beyond that the next Range Rover Sport, both expected to have a mix of mild and plug-in hybrid drivetrains. 

The prospect of diesel models continuing for much longer seems unlikely, the local man suspects – “I think the latest Ingenium engines we are now bringing out will be the last” - even though this has been a preferred choice in the current Defender – which is about to go to a plug-in hybrid petrol choice – and the Discovery, which could yet be the first Land Rover to deliver the wholly electric promise as a new one is on the drawing board for release within three years.

Alternately, the Evoque and Defender Sport might become early adopters of a battery-pure approach. It’s all speculation at the moment. 

He thinks Land Rover’s petrol engines have a future, but in hybrid formats. “They have certainly put a lot of work into making them more eco-friendly and I suspect we will continue to see the benefit of that in the short to medium term.”

He reminds that the off-road specialist is continuing research into hydrogen fuel cell as well. Last week JLR confirmed that fuel cell powertrain development forms a core part of its ‘Reimagine’ strategy and said it will begin road testing prototypes within the next 12 months. 

Last year, the company detailed its Project Zeus initiative: a serious hydrogen power research project with the aim of developing fuel cell-powered versions of its larger vehicles. It has now reinforced that ambition to prepare itself for "the expected adoption of clean fuel-cell power in line with a maturing of the hydrogen economy". 

For its part, Jaguar Land Rover nonetheless says that all of its brands’ nameplates will be available with an all-electric variant by 2030.

Land Rover should be selling around 60 percent of its cars in pure-electric form by the end of the decade. However, it has stated that its first pure-electric model will be in production in 2024.

Land Rover’s latest model here, Defender, is already being built in a PHEV format.

A company release stated, “In the next five years, Land Rover will welcome six pure-electric variants as it continues to be the world leader of luxury SUVs through its three families of Range Rover, Discovery and Defender. The first all-electric variant will arrive in 2024.”

Kenchington says it is clear that customers have a lot to take onboard and will be asked to alter their preferences: Ironically, he muses, the five-litre supercharged V8 that is the antitheses of automotive Green intent is “selling like hot cakes for us at the moment.”

If a pure electric large Land or Range Rover were magicked into sales-ready form right now, it might still be a hard sell to many brand fans. Many probably just aren’t comfortable with electric.

He says it will therefore be crucial for the brand to mount an effective campaign to convert supporters to the new direction. He thinks it will be achievable, particularly once Land Rover can show that all the historic benefits that associate with its off-roaders will be maintained, if not enhanced, by having a battery-drawn drivetrain. 

“At the moment there’s never been so much demand for big ICE engines; we’ve probably never previously sold as many V8 supercharged as we at the moment.

The successful of EV transition will “come down to how good it is, how efficient it is, what the range is ….

“But if it is going to continue to be a Land Rover in its DNA, then I think people will embrace it. There is no reason not to. We have all driven electric and we know how good it is. If it can still submerge to 900mm in a river crossing and do all the other things our vehicles are really good at then there’s no reason why anyone wouldn’t want to go there.” 

“It is all very exciting.”

The plans for Jaguar are more complex, simply because while it was heading toward electric anyway, much has changed with the XJ limousine being scrapped.

In respect to this, the statement from Jaguar headquarters said it is still possible the XJ nameplate might be retained.

The makes’ supercharged 5.0-litre V8 petrol, used in the Jaguar F-Pace SVR as well as by Range Rover, has been a big seller lately.

 “By the middle of the decade, Jaguar will have undergone a renaissance to emerge as a pure-electric luxury brand with a dramatically beautiful new portfolio of emotionally engaging designs and pioneering next-generation technologies. Jaguar will exist to make life extraordinary by creating dramatically beautiful automotive experiences that leave its customers feeling unique and rewarded.”

Overseas commentators say the XE, XF, E-Pace, F-Pace and F-Type would now appear to have a finite lifespan, with all-electric replacements due by around 2025.

Kenchington says those products present interesting potentials. As much as iPace has found a place in the local market, Jaguar really needs other electric products in more convenient price zones than the $150,000-plus SV has nestled into.

Jaguar is likely to unroll its model specific strategies in coming months, he believes. “But clearly F-Type and F-Pace will go all-electric and you would expect E-Pace to do so as well.”

The $80,000 to $100,000 zone where XE and XF mainly position is an area that he is keen to exploit.

“At the (iPace) price point there is a limited audience but I think there is an appetite for electric and we just have to get to the point where we can produce these vehicles a bit cheaper.” 

Jaguar’s sedans have struggled in fossil fuel formats and yet as much market shift to SUVs suggests orthodox four-door booted cars are a dying breed, he looks to how well Tesla has done with the Model 3 and Model S. 

“From my perspective I’m keen to understand what they will do with the sedan market. It looks like XJ will not go ahead, but what they are going to do with XE and XF is interesting – do they keep both, do they keep one, do they have an XF and a long-wheelbase XF to create an XJ alternate? I just don’t know.

 How important could electric Jaguar sedans be in NZ, given we are so SUV-centric? Conceivably, they shouldn’t be, and yet … 

The iPACE accounts for 10 percent of Jaguar volume in NZ.

“If you look at the performance of Tesla, you’d say ‘quite important.’ Model 3 and Model S have been very successful. It feels to me that electric (in a sedan format) seems to attract.”

“In saying that, it could be that this is because there has not been much to offer in the way of SUVs. Tesla were first into the market, there was nothing else to buy … and you buy what you can. It’s very clear that the SUV segments continue to grow and the sedan segments continue to decline.”

His gut feeling is that Jaguar is probably considering E-Pace, F-Pace and another ‘Pace’ model as yet undisclosed being core to the electric drive. But maybe the sedans could survive. “I don’t know.”

The decisions lading to today’s announcement come after Jaguar Land Rover appointed ex-Renault executive Thierry Bollore to replace former CEO Dr Ralf Speth. The Frenchman started his new post last September but has kept a determinedly low profile as he undertook a full review of JLR’s business, current model line-up and future launch plans.

Today’s new has affirmed that JLR is able to retain all of its current production facilities, thereby quashing rumours that one of its UK factories might have been under threat of closure. 

Defender’s fours hit for six?

They knew the plug-in hybrid petrol drivetrain was coming - the shock news for Land Rover’s distributor in respect to the Defender is hearing the four-cylinder diesels that launched here less than two months are set to be retired soon.

 MORE information about the plug-in hybrid powertrain for the Land Rover Defender has come out, along with shock news – for the local distributor - that the four-cylinder diesels driving the model at present seem for the chop. 

In expressing thought about both, Jaguar Land Rover New Zealand’s top man says while the P400e (above), which blends 44km of pure-electric range with punchy 300kW petrol-fired performance, looks tasty, so much will come to price.

As for the apparent determination to axe the diesels that were front and centre at the national media event for Defender, staged just seven weeks ago? 

Well, that’s come as a shock to general manager Steve Kenchington and he’s been eager to get more information from JLR in the United Kingdom, which appeared to indicate this change in an overnight global release.

If that decision is valid, it’s not clear how much longer this market will be served by the D200 and D240 units that contain in all the launch derivatives.

What is known is that a six-cylinder diesel engine will be introduced in March of 2021. The national franchise already knew that this powerplant would arrive in top line D300 format. It’s the news, broken last night, of less powerful D200 and D250 variants of this unit that has come out of left field. Supposedly, these usurp the D200 four and D240.

Kenchington says there was no indication, when the car hit the market in July, that the four-cylinder option was set to disappear. As of today, he’s still not sure it will. Certainly, the reports have come as a complete surprise.

“It’s a real bombshell. I’m scratching my head on it to be honest. We actually haven’t had any formal notification that the four-cylinders are off the table for us.”

He thinks it all comes back to JLR’s focus on economies of scale and achieving less complexity. 

Defender has been selling brilliantly since release – demand is actually ahead of expectation and the likelihood is at least 350 units being ordered by next March, the end of the local arm’s financial year and just nine months away, when 300 were forecast for the entire calendar year.

He doesn’t think knowledge now that an under-bonnet change is going to diminish enthusiasm for the current engines. 

“If anything, it could be quite the contrary.”

Meantime, the idea of taking a PHEV alongside the current sole petrol choice, a 298kW three-litre six-cylinder (P400) that has 48-volt mild hybrid electrification.

As expected, the drivetrain is from the Range Rover Sport PHEV – so a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine mated to an electric motor and a lithium-ion battery. The combined output of the two systems is 296kW and 650Nm, enough to help the Defender crack the 0-100kmh sprint in 5.6 seconds. It can also tow a trailer up to 3000kg in weight.

It can cover up to 44km on pure-electric power alone and, as electric drive is sent to all four wheels, there’s opportunity for zero-emission off-road driving.

The optimal fuel burn average - under the WLTP testing regime - is just 3.3L/100km, which is the same level as claimed for Toyota’s most efficient car, the Yaris Hybrid, while emitting just 74g/km of CO2. Topping up the battery using a 50kW fast charger, meanwhile, takes just 30 minutes for an 80 percent charge, or two hours using a 7.4kW wallbox home charger.

The diesel drive unwraps in an interesting manner. That the entry six-cylinder will continue with D200 badging might confuse, but has a logic, as it creates identical power as is generated by the current 2.0-litre, 147kW – even though torque lifts, from 430Nm to 500Nm. 

Retiring the D240 designation for D250 is logical, too, as it has 184kW, a 7kW lift, and a than the D240 delivers. Torque climbs to 570Nm.

The top state of tune from the six-cylinder in its flagship D300 tune, meantime, is 221kW and 650Nm. 

The big plus for the six-cylinder is enhanced efficiency, but more in terms of emissions - thanks to 48-volt mild hybrid tech, the D200 and D250 emit 250 g/km.

The story is different in respect to economy. Whereas the four-cylinders’ achieve optimals of 7.6 litres per 100km and 7.7L/100km, the D200 and D250 both average 8.7L/100km. The sixes are sharper in the sprint, though, with ability to hit 100kmh in 10.2 seconds (D200), 8.3s (D250), and 6.7s for the D300.

The new diesels also introduce Intelligent All-Wheel Drive to the Land Rover family: this allows up to 100 percent of engine torque to be diverted to either the front or rear axle if required.

Those engines avail in the current 110 and the incoming shorter 90 body styles, whereas the P400e is available only in the 110 wheelbase, with five or six-seat layouts. The PHEVs also come standard with air suspension and 20-inch alloy wheels.

In some markets, Land Rover has also introduced a new X-Dynamic trim that features a satin black finish for the front and rear bash plates, grille bars, recovery loops and alloy wheels. They also take illuminated tread plates and seats finished in hard-wearing Robustek fabric.

Land Rover has also released more detail on its commercial Defenders, named Hard Top, which maintain only the front seats and convert the remaining cabin space as a fully flat load floor and have a load area partition.

Defender set to lead from front

The old one spent its last years as a niche choice. The new won’t have that luxury – it’s expected to do a big job for Jaguar Land Rover New Zealand.

Paul Ricketts (left) and Steve Kenchington believe Defender will secure up to 30 percent of Land Rover volume within the next 12 months.

THINK Vera Lynn and Adele.

Two huge world-renowned, household name stars but each very much of their own respective times. So much so that no-one would ever imagine the passing of the first would trigger an enhanced allegiance to the other.

It’s the same with the Defender. The old one was such an icon – an automotive Vera, you could say. You’ll never hear Land Rover New Zealand ever say anything less. That it has now gone into history does not demean what it is, what it did, how it should be remembered. 

Of course, at same token, the past is the past and the future belongs to a new Defender. Still hugely rugged off-road, yet obviously from another world in respect to its luxuries, look and tech. Especially tech. It’s jammed with up-to-the-minute assists. One example: ClearSight Ground View technology, which utilises small cameras to film the ground in front of the wheels to show you what you’re about to drive into if you’re off-roading. Personally, I couldn’t get enough of this during the car’s first media drive.

So, yeah, it’s amazingly special. So, even those fans who cannot break away from the illustrious past need excuse the Auckland-domiciled brand for putting their effort into getting the successor line established. 

Though, actually, that’s not the right word. Effort, that is. So far, little of this has been required.

In conversation during the model’s media reveal, Steve Kenchington, the general manager of Jaguar Land Rover’s distributor, Motorcorp, and national JLR product manager Paul Ricketts were delighted to admit the car has so far basically sold itself, with almost every unit in the first shipment of 115 units already accounted for. (Don’t worry, more are coming).

It’s a strong start, one befitting a strong product. On that note, Defender is expected to pull itself out of the rut of niche-dom. It’s back to being what it once was, back in the day before its maker had even discovered the Discovery: A mainstream competitor.

MotoringNZ: “Is it fair to call this your most important model of the past five years?” 

Steve Kenchington: “Without a doubt. I’d suggest it’s probably we will ever have in our careers.”

MNZ: Defender is an icon, but had also become remarkable niche in its it final decade – basically, by then it had fallen out of all workplace use. Taking into account that Land Rover has developed Hardtop models that are designed for work, how challenging will it be the re-establish it in that sphere, or have those days gone?

Kenchington: “I don’t think they have gone. We’re still researching and undertaking some analysis about what we might be able to do with the commercial vehicles. I’d just point out that there is a lot of DNA from the old Defender that has gone into the new one. Which is why I think the pursists are going to love the new Defender. 

“We certainly think we are going to capture some of them (the old model’s fanbase). But we also think this new vehicle is going to provide a much bigger audience.”

MNZ: “On that note, it we look forward to this time next year, what percentage of total Land Rover volume should new Defender be achieving? 

Kenchington: “It’s a quite difficult to say … it’s not a Discovery, even though it reaches into the Discovery price area, and it’s not a Range Rover. Even though we expect a lot of early adopters will be buying the very high spec editions to start, we think the main thrust will be from the D240 in the $115,000 price area. 

“Yes, it will cross over into Discovery, but I think they are two very different customer sets.

“In terms of our overall volume? We’re thinking it could achieve 25 to 30 percent. And 90 percent of that we see as being incremental.”

MNZ: “Just getting back to the  ‘purist’ viewpoint of this car – do you really care if some fans of the old one just cannot see anything to like from the new; does it matter?

Kenchington: “It does to me. Old Defender is an icon and certainly during the design, build and testing phases it was always about trying to create another icon. We want the purists to love it … so long as they understand that it has had to evolve into what it has become today. 

“For the survival of a brand you have got to get volume.”

MNZ: “Speaking of that, you seem to have got of to an excellent start, with almost your first shipment already accounted for. A good sign of it being what the market is waiting for?”

Paul Ricketts: “115 have landed in the country and we expected more than 300 over the next year. The supply chain for Defender is solid. Defender has been a key focus for Land Rover and so, where some of the factories were affected more by Covid, Defender production was able to continue on.”

MNZ: As you say, the Defender plant in Slovakia seems to have escaped the coronavirus crisis. But, of course, car plants in the United Kingdom – from where the majority of Jaguar Land Rover product still sources – were hit. Is there concern that some other product lines by be hit by supply shortages?

Kenchington: “We haven’t seen it. Our volumes are extremely strong at the moment and it’s across all the model line ups. Top-end volume has been remarkably strong, but we’ve seen good sales across Discovery, Discover Sport and Range Rover Evoque and Velar.  We’re getting a really good mix of volume.

“From Defender point of view, we always anticipated 300 for the year but we are already realigning that, to 400 unites, based on the initial inquiry levels we’ve had.”

MNZ: “So the commonly-heard viewpoint from thin industry at the moment about how people are buying cars because they cannot take expensive holidays overseas is ringing true?

Kenchington: “Absolutely. It’s very true.”

MNZ: “Your main thrust in the initial period will be with D240 and the P400, but do you imagine these will be the mainstay choices in the long run? 

Ricketts: “Over this year it will be the D240 SE. Going forward we will have the D300 with the in-line six-cylinder Ingenium diesel and we can see that becoming very strong.”

MNZ: “Keeping with engines, it’s all but confirmed that the line will include another petrol V8 – in SVX guise - and that there is also a plug-in hybrid coming; what can you tell us about those and where do they fit in to your planning?

Kenchington: “We’re really excited … we can’t wait! We don’t know too much about SVX but there is a lot of expectation around it. It’s going to be the very extreme off-road vehicle of the same flavour as the very extreme Discovery that got put on ice because they’ve decided to launch it in Defender first.

“We’re very excited for that and see a strong market for it. Land Rover has established a strong SV (special vehicles) credibility.”

 Ricketts: “We’ve already had lots of customers inquire about the plug-in hybrid. It’ll be available next year with the P300 engine and 100PS of battery.”