It’s been great weather in Paris where we have been invited to attend the launch of the Jaguar XE and the Land Rover Discovery Sports at the Paris Motor Show.
Jean-Loup, a friend from my student days at University Malaya, said that such sunny Parisian weather in September and October was unusual. And we enjoyed it, having one of the best steaks, alfresco at a small practical French restaurant, a 10-minute walk from the Hotel du Collectionneur on the Rue de Courcelles.
While we enjoyed the unusually good weather, there were some strange and happy coincidences.
One of this was the very strategic way that Gerry McGovern said, “I’ve the new plans for the Land Rover Defender in my pocket…”
We were on the barge by the River Seine. The whole embankment had been rented by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) for this world media presentation.
McGovern, Land Rover’s Design Director and the Chief Creative Officer, was giving his welcome speech to the media and in his traditional, unscripted way, was talking about “white space opportunities” for JLR when he gave this big hint about the new fortunes for the Land Rover Defender.
For those who are not so familiar with the subject, less than three years ago, the JLR management indicated that they were going to drop the Defender because it would be too difficult and expensive to achieve full European Commission compliance.
This decision created a worldwide swell of dismay among the Land Rover enthusiast fraternity. You must understand that in the off-road community globally, there are arguably only two icons – Jeep and Land Rover – I beg the pardon of Toyota Land Cruiser and Suzuki Jimny fans.
Of both these Land Rover and Jeep clubs, I would confidently say that there are more Land Rover clubs in the world than Jeep clubs.
And of all the Land Rover vehicles, the Defender, and its predecessors, the Series Land Rovers, are the most recognisable.
The LR team then presented some concepts for the Defender replacement, including the DC100, which looked like a Toyota FJ Cruiser. It did not satisfy most.
McGovern’s “we have plans for the Defender” is most welcomed by the Land Rover diaspora because this is a platform that any car brand would die for, I think.
Not only is it one of the most recognisable shapes in the world – which is important when you think that there are about 80 car brands in China alone, mostly with indistinguishably shaped cars and laughable names – the Defender has such a pure sense of purpose that is stands heads and shoulders above the rest of the wannabes.
Mercedes-Benz also had this dilemma about their G-Wagen – they wanted to discontinue it because the sales volume of 30,000 units a year made no manufacturing logic. Finally the Stuttgart company decided to keep making it as long as people desired it and kept right on buying it.
And anyway, seeing as how the Defender lends itself to small volume production, JLR have associates and subsidiaries making the Defender in Malaysia and India, amongst others.
It would then be a matter of evolving the Defender with a bigger diesel engine and an automatic transmission. Never mind if it continues to have small water leaks – it’s supposed to be hosed out after hard work in the field. That’s a Defender.
We also had a chat with Ian Callum, the chief Jaguar designer. At 60, he is one of the veterans of the English car industry and we discussed the irony of how JLR is thriving under Indian ownership, when it had failed or was failing under firstly, the British government nationalism of the motor industry, and then the company was sold in parts or in whole to firstly BMW, and then Ford, and finally, its current success under the ownership of the Tata group.
Mini, Rolls Royce and Bentley are British brands and doing well under BMW and Volkswagen ownership. But the Germans don’t shout about the Englishness of their brands.
But JLR has taken the opposite approach as was clearly defined at the Paris Motor Show where there was an English-themed military marching band in the opening gimmick.
The launch even screened a video of Prince Harry talking about the war wounded and the Invictus programme for the war-wounded sponsored by JLR.
Even before that, ever since Tata set up JLR, the Englishness of the brand has been established by the posh English accents of almost all those who work in the management of JLR.
Another thing is that, as part of cultivating this English image, the JLR people are not encouraged to talk about Tata beyond that “it’s a long relationship and mutual respect” which is true enough, judging from the recent successes at JLR and the passion of their management and their pride in their work.
Speaking in the context of Tata’s involvement in the brand, Callum said: “There was a lot of faith in the Jaguar Land Rover brand, and the huge investment in JLR took lots of courage and confidence (on the part of Tata).
“(Ratan) Tata would say: you run Jaguar and Land Rover and you must mind it as you want to. You are in charge of defining Jaguar and Land Rover. He visits us regularly, about every six weeks once, and he loves design.”
“At the time of the crunch (the Lehman crisis in 2008), we were about finished (when Ford sold JLR to Tata) but Tata said: Keep going.”
Talking about the success of the Evoque and the JLR brand, Callum said: “Success can be shortlived if you don’t look at it.
“We’re now seen as a serious competitor to BMW and this competition is relentless. There’s a lot of energy to keep it going. It’s a very big adventure, just don’t look down.”
What about Ralf Speth, the CEO of JLR, who is a German, in the sea of English people in the JLR brand management? An exception that proves the rule?
Ralf loves to foster the Britishness of the Jaguar Land Rover brand.
In the automotive industry, there’ s a lesson to be learnt from JLR and Tata – about ownership and management.
Could Proton and DRB-Hicom learn something from this?