Subscribe now and choose from over 30 free gifts worth up to £49 - Plus get £25 to spend in our shop
In 10 years.
All over the usual news channels.
But did people spend more on Amazon/Ebay/Online instead ?
Very likely mate.
All part of the grownups’ plan
And jlr are employing three thousand people in Slovakia instead. The fact most of their cars are diesel isnt doing them any favours at the moment, but Brexit is really turning the screw.
Combination of brexshite and that dieselgate crap innit, and being the Jag brand or LRover brand.. who wants to been seen in buckets of crap like that?
Supermarkets though, well they’ve been going downhill for ages.. it’s only the discount retailers doing any good.. makes you wonder why doesn’t it ? Erm, no not really.. it’s a simple answer.
Why pay more for stuff, when it’s cheaper online ?
Sales in China down 50% YOY, XF and XE sales also both down by more than 50%. Even the F-Pace down by over 30%.
Then first of these is probably the one with the most impact.
I mentioned this on the Brexit thread a while ago. My brother-in-Law and sister-in-Law both work for JLR and they moved from the UK to Slovakia 2 weeks ago.
JLR are opening a big new plant there along with training facilities.
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/jaguar-land-rover-factory-slovakia-14957225
1 in 5 children are in food insecurity
they had a headmistress on the bbc about this and asked her how do you know ? "children taking left over fruit from the bins" was the answer. Certainly wiped the smug bbc look of his face.
It's still a very mixed picture out there. Certain sectors are on the up and growing/investing.
The businesses that come out the back of this will be stronger leaner and part of the rebuild.
Why pay more for stuff, when it’s cheaper online ?
And takes less time. I was surprised to see that online purchases still only make up 20%. I would estimate mine and my wife's purchasing to be around 90% online.
would estimate mine and my wife’s purchasing to be around 90% online.
A bit less here but over 50%. That's largely due to limited choice locally.
It’s still a very mixed picture out there. Certain sectors are on the up and growing/investing.
The businesses that come out the back of this will be stronger leaner and part of the rebuild.
Sorry the latter half sounds like the usual management speak bs. If their growth is unaffected by brexit then coming through will make no difference, if their growth is a result of brexit then once brexit ends they may be in a weaker position. If the economy is screewed there’s no guarantee that any uk business will be in an strong position, especially from overseas competitors or asset strippers. If they’re growing then leaner seems a bit odd. You’re assuming there will be a rebuild and that’ll work
Sorry the latter half sounds like the usual management speak bs
Well I work in business improvements, change and investment stuff. Just me personal experience from the companies I'm visiting and working with. UK manufacturing is in a better place now than it was. 10 years ago the warm up to brexit would have massacred some of these places.
The fact most of their cars are diesel isnt doing them any favours at the moment
The small fact that they are utterly sh*te build quality and break down with alarming regularity doesn't help either.
Two JLR cars with our extended family:
An Evoc that has three times just stopped, no reasons, it just does. Same car also wore through a fuel line where it rubbed part of the engine. Also had constant issues with the tyre inflation sensor things.
A second hand XE - in 6 months of ownership it spent 3 months at various dealers (As first one dropped JLR) eventually getting a full wiring loom. Same again, kept just dropping into limp mode or event shouting at driver to stop. Sold asap.
1 in 5 children are in food insecurity
they had a headmistress on the bbc about this and asked her how do you know ? “children taking left over fruit from the bins” was the answer. Certainly wiped the smug bbc look of his face.
This is truly shameful,meanwhile we piss £6bn up the wall on brexit
I saw something on the BBC a few days ago about Aldi having their best year ever in the UK and the major growth area being "luxury" brands. The summary was that people are spending wisely rather than less, comparing prices and shopping online due to it being easier and more cost effective.
Wasn't Jag being made in the UK always in doubt after it was taken over by TATA? Their business model it to buy the brand and then move production somewhere cheap?
10 years ago the warm up to brexit would have massacred some of these places.
Maybe think about 15 or 20 years ago as a good point for comparison. 10 years ago, if you didn't notice, we were having a rudy great recession.
If the minimum wage had risen pro rata with the Sovereign Fund (the queen's wage), it would now be £16.50 per hour.
Wasn’t Jag being made in the UK always in doubt after it was taken over by TATA? Their business model it to buy the brand and then move production somewhere cheap?
Always the case, buy a brand and shift it to somewhere cheaper to manufacture..
And this Governments retarded views about the Steel industry in the UK and thier total lack of social consequences when those plants got closed (owned by foreign owners whose business plan was always to buy up UK competition then close them down and inflate prices from production in cheaper countries)
£6bn on brexshite is an utter travesty, we’ve got people eating out of donated food banks all over the Uk and social deprivation at an all time low.
Anyway, you voted the retards in 🤷♂️🥴
Moving production and plants abroad is not really something that happens overnight. This will have been planned for years and likely long before brexit was even a thing. As mentioned earlier the biggest issue will be the dramatic drop in China registrations and the demonisation of diesels in the U.K.,which in itself is complete tosh, given most new diesels are more effieicent and cleaner than their petrol counterparts.
As for the high street, I did 50/50 online and highstreet. Wife probably 70/30 in favour of online for Christmas. But for me the local highstreet is just not worth the ROI from a shoppers perspective. Stock choice is shocking, service abismal and the added headache of parking! I took the family shopping this weekend and had to pay £10 to park my car for 4 hours in Cheltenham, wouldn’t be so bad but it was hardly int he thick of the action. If I shop in the highstreet now I like to be in and out quickly. But it’s likely a whole day affair and more expensive a privilege. Nah
If the minimum wage had risen pro rata with the Sovereign Fund (the queen’s wage), it would now be £16.50 per hour.
I always thought MPs salaries should be a fixed multiple of the minimum wage or maybe a fixed multiple of the mean full time female wage - that would make them think about improving wage conditions...
Sales in China down 50% YOY, XF and XE sales also both down by more than 50%. Even the F-Pace down by over 30%.
Then first of these is probably the one with the most impact.
This. Much as I'd like to blame Brexit, I think it's a secondary factor in this case.
JLR are rather screwed.
LR put all their eggs into the diesel basket and are now suffering - only 3% of their sales are petrol engines. They spent zero on researching hybrid technology AFAIA and so will now have to buy that technology in.
Meanwhile the other 'luxury' SUV manufacturers (especially Porsche with the 2 litre v4 919 hybrid) invested in hybrid/electric power and are better placed. Porsche have now stopped production of all diesel models and are only offering petrol, hybrid and [soon] all electric.
I know a number of people with very expensive Range Rovers and a number of them are saying that they wouldn't get another as the build quality/reliability just isn't there.
I always thought MPs salaries should be a fixed multiple of the minimum wage or maybe a fixed multiple of the mean full time female wage
they would just change the multiplier.
They spent zero on researching hybrid technology AFAIA and so will now have to buy that technology in.
Maybe, but the future is going to be electric, and the f-pace puts them leagues ahead of even a lot of the bigger brands.
They spent zero on researching hybrid technology AFAIA and so will now have to buy that technology in.
They developed their own chassis based technology.
LR put all their eggs into the diesel basket and are now suffering – only 3% of their sales are petrol engines. They spent zero on researching hybrid technology AFAIA and so will now have to buy that technology in.
Jaguar have a very successful electric vehicle, the I-Pace so this will help LR with electrification. Range Rover Sport is available as a hybrid and the recently released new Evoque also has hybrid derivatives so that may help them. The demonisation of diesel certainly wont help them although their engines AFAIK have not suffered any 'cheating' issues as others have.
the f-pace puts them leagues ahead
i-Pace, shirley.
Also from the BBC today - Ford to cut thousands of jobs, Are the days of the private car really over?
Not a good time to be in the car-making business, IMHO. I expect in a few years we won't think twice about where they're made or who they're made by, just like a TV or a fridge.
I expect in a few years we won’t think twice about where they’re made or who they’re made by, just like a TV or a fridge.
Most I'd say don't care now.
True to an extent, but the German brands still seem to maintain an irrational loyalty amongst many, although how that survived dieselgate is a mystery to me.
There's huge global over-capacity in the car market - the western market is only sustained by cheap finance selling PCPs, forcing people to replace every three years is artificially sustaining the used car market. Manufacturers make more money selling finance than selling cars. The whole car ownership model is probably a busted flush, particularly when we consider the increased costs of electric and hybrid when it's just an expensive depreciating asset. In cities, shared use models where you simply call-up a vehicle when you need it makes far more sense, but the problems is our western economies are built on consumption.
Moving production and plants abroad is not really something that happens overnight. This will have been planned for years and likely long before brexit was even a thing.
Indeed. Nissan ( I work in the Sunderland plant) have been using what they call "low cost countries" ie: Eastern Europe, as a threat in any pay negotiations for at least 15 years
On a purely personal (selfish??) level, I'm hoping for some sort of job shedding exercise to go with my retirement later this year
Leaving LR aside isn't just a fact of people being skint? I've got noticeably less disposable income than 11years ago with less debt. I am therefore spending much less and shopping wiser.
I know a good few people who work in and around jlr its been on the cards for years that it will move away from the uk. Its been used partly as a platform to upskill the home TATA workforce. I dont blame TATA one bit.
The global slowdown thats comming has just helped move it along a bit faster.
10% brexit
90% clever business strategy.
I feel for the people that will now go back to unemployment i will most likely know a few by tomorrow.
Also times move on young people dont want cars like my generation did they might need one but they dont see them as major status symbols like my generation.
Its been used partly as a platform to upskill the home TATA workforce.
I'm pretty sure the home TATA workforce are not located in Nitra, Slovakia. 🙂
But did people spend more on Amazon/Ebay/Online instead ?
Pretty much all of my Christmas shopping was through Amazon this year. Normally also use John Lewis and Debenhams, but didn't this time.
I don't think Debenhams will see this year out.
They have a very large home work force at jlr in placements im good friends with a few. One is doing 2 years then moving on within tata its good for the CV apparently
I'm not sure the JLR news is that new is it? I know it's in the news and has a formal announcement, but this has been known about for at least a few weeks if not longer (just checked a Pistonheads thread - last October).
Global demand is shrinking, Let's face it, oversupply and a need at some point to rein in printing money quantitative easing means that significant manufacturing bases are going to be impacted.
What's massively frustrating is that this has come at a time of economic uncertainty in Britain amid the ongoing political crisis.
the western market is only sustained by cheap finance selling PCPs, forcing people to replace every three years is artificially sustaining the used car market. Manufacturers make more money selling finance than selling cars.
I've long said that car manufacturers sell you money and throw in the use of a car during the loan term. But then they've been doing that since car finance was invented 100 years ago.
The real shift will be in how the large manufacturers adapt to new ways of using and owning cars. I can't see the demand for personal transport declining, only a shift in ownership and responsibility for repair. Why not just have a subscription service (like music, films, etc.) and access whatever vehicles are available in your monthly plan. We'll still need to have vehicles built and out on the roads, they'll just be different....
JLR also have an estimated £600m warranty bill from 2018 to deal with, which also might be impacting their reputation and sales.
I don’t think Debenhams will see this year out.
They've done well to get this far. However, this time last year it was House of Fraser or Debenhams. HOF has gone, so now it's inevitably going to be the turn of Debenhams.
Anecdotally, I also shop a lot at Amazon, but increasingly am trying to move away from it. the mission of the business is to be the sole place to shop. I'm not sure I like the idea of that future.
I saw something on the BBC a few days ago about Aldi having their best year ever in the UK and the major growth area being “luxury” brands.
The luxury brands growth has been going on for a while. but I think that's mainly been driven by some much money sloshing around as a of the artificial boom post the financial crisis. Look at the surge in asset prices since then - luxury goods is just riding on the back of that.
Aldi is different - it's already a huge global business and its change in strategy a few years ago to subsidising the UK market in order to gain market share has clearly continued to work. I earn a reasonable income, but even we now buy some things from there (and pick up the better stuff at Booths next door...).
most new diesels are more effieicent and cleaner than their petrol counterparts.
How are they cleaner?
*Looks for lease deal on diesel jag*
Did the EU not give them a 125 million Euro grant to move to a plant in Slovakia?
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-6023_en.htm
Edit
No they approved the state aid from the Slovakian Government.
Did the EU not give them a 125 million Euro grant to move to a planet in Slovakia?
Yup just one of the advantages of being in the EU you get funding to attract companies.
High street? Pay for parking in tiny spaces where you're lucky not to scratch your car. Get haranged by charity muggers and beggars. Mix with the general public who quite often smell bad. 🤭 lol. Nahhhhh! Bubye high Street. However we do need to properly tax Amazon.
The word on the street is that JLR will shut Castle Bromwich, and move the lines East in the not too distant future. Very grim if that become fact.
There’s huge global over-capacity in the car market – the western market is only sustained by cheap finance selling PCPs, forcing people to replace every three years is artificially sustaining the used car market. Manufacturers make more money selling finance than selling cars. The whole car ownership model is probably a busted flush, particularly when we consider the increased costs of electric and hybrid when it’s just an expensive depreciating asset. In cities, shared use models where you simply call-up a vehicle when you need it makes far more sense, but the problems is our western economies are built on consumption.
Interesting post this, mainly because it links into my job nicely. Albeit it’s not all correct. First off car manufacturers don’t make more money from finance than they do car sales. The dealers selling them, maybe (for new) but many of the manufacturers outsource their funding to major finance houses/banks. Sure there will be some kind of kick back, but there is plenty of profit in the vehicle transaction way from funding. Different story for a dealer as I say. The change from
Ownership to usership is a big talking point in the industry at the moment. Millenials and younger generations are looking to move away from PcP or consumer finance agreements to PCH where they only have to consider the monthly cost of a car. Think of it as your mobile phone contract. The market wants monthly fixed cost over a term with upgrade at the end. This changes the used vehicle dynamics significantly and I think you will see more secondary and third life leasing develop in coming years. This becomes massively profitable for the leasing companies ans they can really sweat the asset prior to disposal. We are also seeing some marked increases in short term hire arrrangements especially in urban areas such as London. It’s certainly a fascinating time seeing it unravel and develop.
In terms of New car suppliers it’s also important to not forget the pressure they were all put under with the WLTP changes which caused huge supply issues. This would have compounded sales declines further. Used car market as a result has been the most buoyant we have seen in years.
It’s interesting stuff, feel sorry for those that have their jobs at risk I really do.
Makes you wonder how many people at JLR voted for Brexit doesn’t it.
Makes you wonder how many people at JLR voted for Brexit doesn’t it.
Maybe, but like has been said this is less to do with brexit than many other deeper issues and stemmed long before brexit was even on the table. But never let that get in the way of a brexit moan for sure.
I lost interest in owning a JLR group car when when price of the i-Pace was released. It might need to be that price as it's expensive to make (and is in line with Tesla pricing) but it's stupid money for what you actually get.
"Pay for parking in tiny spaces where you’re lucky not to scratch your car."
Free parking at out of town shopping centres isn't free...
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235359727_The_High_Cost_of_Free_Parking
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Cost_of_Free_Parking
To be fair, I think Brexit is pretty far down the road of problems for JLR - China consumer confidence has taken a big hit because, well they're due a recession and Trumps trade war will hurt them that's their biggest export market. US trade tarrifs will hurt their second biggest market and Europe is running away from diesel as quickly as they can and JLR make a lot of diesels.
The 'no deal' Brexit, which I believe The Commons has all but ruled out now, could sink them, but I don't think anyone will dare think that'll happen.
The word on the street is that JLR will shut Castle Bromwich, and move the lines East in the not too distant future. Very grim if that become fact.
Or ship out the existing tech of diesel to be made cheaper elsewhere and base the electric lines out of the UK.
Umm ive been told electric moter and battery development are staying Uk based.everything else is going i hope not. castle brom is prime housing land though.
I have a number of mates who work at JLR in a combination of R&D and middle management roles. I don’t think any of them would have voted for Brexit. They all seemed to be acutely aware of the vulnerability of too much dependence on China/ diesel/ also poor build quality etc. and I think the view for most of them was why add one more worry to the pot. The shop floor may be different I guess.
Also times move on young people dont want cars like my generation did they might need one but they dont see them as major status symbols like my generation.
Thats not the case for what i see. They just cant afford it. On has just bought a type r to deliver pizzas.
It wss obviously going to happen whe jlr started saying they'll leave because brexit etc. As said earlier would have been years in the plan.
Another part of JLR's problem is the LR's range has too much overlap. A few years ago you had Defender, MK3/4 Discovery (and commercial variant), Feeelander, RRS and FFRR. Each one differently styled and serving a distinct sector.
Now we have Evoke, Velar, Mk5 Discovery, Discovery Sport, RRS and FFRR. They are all soft styled and too close to each.
New Defender has been pushed back a few more years leaving a big hole for the commercial/off road user that is being filled by Toyota's commercial spec LC and at the other end by Suzuki New Jimny.
Coupled with landlocked manufacturing sites like Solihul, and massive untimely investment in diesel engine manufacturing and you can see how they have backed themselves into a corner.
Apparently online didn’t do much better than offline
Selling Betamax in a VHS world doesn't help.
Imagine you are in the market for a new car. Would these attract or deter you?
1) Questionable build quality
2) Diesel dependence
3) Poor fuel economy
4) Confused range with lots of overlap
5) 2 brand with images slightly out of touch with the times
Brexit doesn't help. China doesn't help. But there is something more fundamentally wrong with their consumer offer and their commercial model that speaks to the lack of vision and poor macro management of the business over a number of years.
Sorry for anybody personally involved, but even in difficult times there are winners. The fact that JLR is a loser is down to the business itself, not external factors.
Probably every decade there is a shakeout of british industry, in the car market, ford stopped making transits here, chrysler pulled out, so did British Leyland by being bust and broke,Vauxhall have a small assembly plant in ellesmere port, just about hanging on and a van plant in luton, ford have a plant in liverpool, job loses due to be announced soon it seems for both.
Then we have Honda and Toyota saying staff will have a holiday end of march /april due to brexit problems, both here to get exports into the eu and having got huge grants to be here.
Then there are the shops, do we still need department stores, like debenhams, HOF, and marks and spencer, to pander to the older population.
The uk is changing, vehicles are cheaper to make abroad, look at furniture and electronics.
Three vehicle suppliers seem to be doing well though, rolls royce and bentley, along with the new train assembley plants being currently built in the uk.
Yup just one of the advantages of being in the EU you get funding to attract companies
Nissan ( I work in the Sunderland plant) have been using what they call “low cost countries” ie: Eastern Europe, as a threat in any pay negotiations for at least 15 years
Thankfully those EU loans and grants have kept it in Sunderland, luckily Sunderland voted massively to remain..... Oh!
JLR are not the only manufacturer to be feeling the pinch at the moment. Ford have announced redundancies today citing the same non-brexit issues, so have Vauxhall and others will follow I'm sure. Porsche had a complete production shut down a couple of months ago due to falling demand.
The motor industry as been on a massive boom for decades now, so a downturn was inevitable at some point, and the combination of the China crisis and diesel-gate is what's driving it...it'll pick up again, and at the end of the day JLR have only announced a drop in profits...they still made £1.5bn post drop in demand. So the current measures are what any sensible business would do in similar situations to protect its future.
I'm sorry for those being made redundant...but I'm sure the vast majority will go voluntarily with a redundancy deal or via early retirement....I'm always amazed at the company I work for, the number of people willing to go and just waiting for an opportunity to go and do other stuff. We always get almost all of our head count reductions through voluntary severance or early retirement and they all go with a smile on their face and a spring in their step. And more often than not we see the same faces back again a few years down the line when the industry picks up again and the company is recruiting like mad.
The more concerning thing is that the downturn in car demand in China is the first sign that things are not all well in China which has been dragging the world economy along for a while now. If things take a turn in China then the whole world will feel the affects.
Thankfully those EU loans and grants have kept it in Sunderland, luckily Sunderland voted massively to remain….. Oh!
Yup, **** them.
An school friend of mine just joined the Cumbria police, just heard that they are having to resort to charity donation or council tax increases to keep their new intake because of unseen pensions expenses.
I'm sure her leave vote will pay off just fine for her, with a tanking pound increasing their costs across the board for things like equipment and pensions and potentially reduced funding due to a drop in national tax income.
She thought Jezzer would come to the rescue and boost public spending and that we didn't need the EU. HAHAHAHAHAHAH. Karma dickheads.
The more concerning thing is that the downturn in car demand in China is the first sign that things are not all well in China which has been dragging the world economy along for a while now. If things take a turn in China then the whole world will feel the affects.
China is an interesting factor definatley has a part to play, but i find it strange that companies didn't think china would go "pro China products" in the event of any foreign question, also see apple.
It's like the suppliers to JLR who have no diversity in there customers, i dont think we live in a time you can be so dependent on one income stream.
Been trying to understand china a bit more but non bias information is hard to find so satire it is (the writer is from china apprently)
Is the laying off of staff and moving production elsewhere a reason to stop buying jags then
Is the laying off of staff and moving production elsewhere a reason to stop buying jags then
Not really, you should be making the judgement on the car not the company really, every auto company is global these days.
JLR are still pumping a huge amount into the local economy and the supply chain.
From some of the comments above you would think they make rubbish cars, but I do like my Jag - it was unreliable in the first year but all fixed under warranty, it drives far more nicely than the competition (I’m thinking bmw or Audi) has 340hp so is plenty quick enough, and will do 40+ mpg on a run. It is a shame their electric effort is so expensive, but it is their first one so hopefully they survive long enough to make a decent one.
From some of the comments above you would think they make rubbish cars
They do Discoveries for starters lovely vehicle but hopeless build quality.
but I do like my Jag – it was unreliable in the first year but all fixed under warranty, it drives far more nicely than the competition (I’m thinking bmw or Audi) has 340hp so is plenty quick enough, and will do 40+ mpg on a run.
I have no idea why that doesn't appeal to people? Crap MPG and power you don't need.....
Their vehicles often have great design flair but JLR’s problems boil down to:
1. Lack of strategy. They made big bets on bad choices (more diesel, slow to get going on electric, over reliance on the Chinese market).
2. Poor quality product. In the last vehicle reliability rankings they had three out of the 5 most unreliable cars on the market.
3. This is compounded by outrageously high repair costs, snooty dealers and poor customer service.
If I look around my area there are a surprising number of people who can afford cars from Audi, Volvo etc that compete squarely with the Jaguar and Land Rover equivalent models. But there are no JLR vehicles - why?
I’m sure sure JLR will continue to blame Brexit but their problems are much closer to home. Hopefully the management team will turn the tanker before any more employees pay the price for their failure to deal with the issues above.
Mike, your last two posts seem somewhat conflicted to me....
Nope judge on the car, the post about crap reliability, mpg and service would and should put people off.
Happy to take money off them from a corporate perspective as there still seems to be enough mugs to keep buying them!
340bhp suggests you have nd XE S or F-type, timbog160. None of the tests or official figures I can find gets anywhere near 40mpg. In nearly any petrol car I drive I can match the best claimed figures driving at less than 80km/h (50mph) on traffic free French a-roads. However I can't do better, and the best figure I've seen claimed for a 340bhp Jag is 34.9mpg. I suggest you do a brim to brim test of your own with a GPS for distance and then get back to us. Just warming up a Jag takes a gallon by which time you'll have covered about 15 miles. After that you'd have to be in rural Scotland and keep below 55mph to better 30mpg.
Official XE S figures
Consommation / Autonomie
Ville 13,9 L/100km
Autoroute 9,7 L/100km
Combinée 12,0 L/100km
Autonomie 525 km
And an F-type test:
https://www.evo.co.uk/jaguar/f-type/page/0/4
Edukator - it’s a XF 3.0 V6 diesel, but with a TDI tuning box, which takes the stock 300hp up to 340 (claimed based on the setting I run it at - its supposed to be able to get it up to 360ish max but I rarely bother with that). I did say 40+ on a run (generally a steady 70-80). You are correct in that round town it won’t get past low 30’s mpg if that - all the above based on miles vs litres used, rather than the computer. As with all manufacturers the claimed figures are wildly higher!
My previous car was a V8 supercharged Range Rover which was both woefully unreliable and uneconomic (think 15mpg) so for the moment I’m happy with what I get, but when I change (prob end this year, early next) I’ll be looking for something that gives a further step change in economy.
Ahhh, so it's got special box to make it break all the pollution laws and produce much more filth than standard. I'd better stop there.
How are they cleaner?
Diesels still produce less CO2 than petrol engines - the reduction in the number of new diesels on the road has resulted in the production of CO2 from new cars increasing by about 3% last year.
You can't win at the moment.
But JRL products produce so much more CO2 than smaller lighter cars (whether petrol, diesel or hybrid) that the group has no hope of meeting the average CO2 targets that are soon to bite other than by having a large proportion of electric vehicles in its range. The only reason JLR is going electric is because it will be legislated out of existance if it doesn't. Unless Britain leaves the EU of course which is perhaps why JLR is so keen to highlight all of its other woes and claim Brexit is not a major factor in its choices.
Have a look at JRL products and compare the CO2 figures with cars with equivalent people and load carrying capcity from Renault. JRL went diesel to avoid their products being taxed off the roads and now they'll have to go electric, if it isn't already too late.
Mercedes brought Smart, BMW have Mini. The Germans reacted to average CO2 targets while JLR group concentrated on big polluting monsters as they always have. Idiots.
It doesn’t matter which way you go - petrol or diesel, the way private cars are currently used feels unsustainable in the long run. Demonising diesels is just doing the same as Gordon Brown did in the early part of this century when he demonised petrol (to be fair based on the advice he was given). Ultimately people need to drive less, and this I think will be the problem for ALL manufacturers not just JLR.
Ultimately people need to drive less
Absolutely.