Automobile enterprises keeping up with the times doesn't mean following the trend of involution.
Article | Zhang Bowen Editor | Zhang Bowen
Homogenization is likely to be the most prominent main theme of the Chinese automotive industry in 2024.
Is the market competition fierce? It is indeed intense. Is the technology advancing? It is also indeed progressing, and the cars that consumers can purchase are getting better and better.
But what cannot be avoided is that the cars that consumers can buy in the market are becoming increasingly similar.
To what extent? Technological convergence, product parameter convergence, and even design convergence. Cover the car logos, and everyone has narrow-eyed headlights and through-type taillights. The only difference might be that you launch a new car first, and your pricing is A. I launch two months later, and my pricing is lower than A.
This is obviously not a favorable thing.
Due to the decline in sales and traffic anxiety, more and more automotive company leaders are going live, shooting videos, and attempting every method to "establish an IP", but they have overlooked the most crucial point: The car itself is the greatest IP of an automotive company, and a convergent car cannot become an IP.
Just like every self-media worker has a vertical niche that they excel in, Jaguar Land Rover splitting into 4 sub-brands has the same core logic as this move: finding the differentiation from competitors, highlighting individuality, and clarifying the development direction.
Thus, in 2024, every independent brand has made many new moves that are "in line with the brand image".
As a representative of top luxury cars, the Range Rover brand has created a new retail model called "Range Rover Realm" in 2024, bringing the Range Rover SV Bespoke personal customization business to the Chinese market.
Land Rover Range Rover Sport SV (Source: Official Enterprise)
In a nutshell, the Range Rover SV Bespoke personal customization business is a personalized customization service specially created by Land Rover for high-end customers. Customers can choose from over 200 car paint colors, and even provide samples to customize unique color schemes. They can also customize the wheel style, body emblem and other appearance details. In terms of the interior, it supports the selection of top-level leather, wood veneer, carbon fiber and other high-end materials, and can add personalized elements such as embroidery patterns and exclusive logos. At the same time, it provides luxury function upgrades, such as rear aviation seats, custom audio and in-car fragrance systems. Each customer will be equipped with an exclusive customization consultant to follow up the entire design and production process to ensure that each vehicle is a unique work of art.
When a large number of smart cars use the so-called smart technology to indicate that they are the luxury of the new era, Range Rover uses a series of exclusive services to tell the market that technology is only a means, and the exclusive luxury experience is the ultimate goal to reflect the brand value.
Compared with the Range Rover that highlights top luxury, the two sub-brands of Land Rover Defender and Discovery have a more distinct personality attitude. As the pioneer of all-terrain SUVs, starting from 2025, Land Rover Defender has officially become the official automotive partner of the Dakar Rally, and from 2026, it will join the rally as a factory team. The new flagship model Land Rover Defender OCTA and the new Land Rover Defender V8 have also become extremely rare large-displacement all-terrain SUVs in the current Chinese market. And 2024 is the 35th anniversary of the birth of the Discovery brand. In Altay, Xinjiang, the ninth season of the "Endless Discovery" journey has been welcomed. This iconic brand IP has attracted more than 30,000 car owners and guests, traveling through nearly a quarter of China's territory with a total journey of more than 50,000 kilometers.
Land Rover Defender Family (Source: Official Enterprise)
The all-terrain SUV market is not a very large market in China, but as long as the demand exists, Defender and Discovery will exist. Providing sufficient personalized choices for a small number of users is also the responsibility and mission that a luxury brand should have.
As for Jaguar, in 2024, as the first luxury car brand to participate in the Formula E World Championship, the Jaguar TCS Racing Team won the Team World Championship and the Manufacturer's Annual Championship in 2024.
The Formula E World Championship is an international top-level event on par with F1. And from the perspective of a manufacturer team, it is more difficult to win in the FE Formula E because, unlike F1, where as long as the budget is sufficient or the right research and development direction is found, there is a chance to win. Due to the restrictions of the event organizers, the gap between FE teams is smaller. To win, the team needs more efficient research and development and adjustment, as well as the full cooperation of the team and the driver.
In a sense, if any manufacturer or group can win in an international top-level racing event, it not only represents that this team has absolutely advanced racing adjustment technology, but also represents that this team and company have extremely efficient internal management and project promotion capabilities.
After all, to build a car and see if this car can be successful, the verification cycle is probably several years. But for a racing team, whether it can be successful actually depends on the final result.
In 2025, Jaguar will transform into a new modern luxury brand that is purely electric. In November last year, Jaguar released a new brand logo. In December, the global debut of the new pure electric concept car Type 00. In the future, it will bring three new modern luxury electric vehicle models, and the first mass-produced model is expected to be unveiled in 2025.
The excellent results achieved in the Formula E to some extent also confirm Jaguar's advanced strength in the field of electrification, making the new Jaguar electric vehicle more worthy of market expectations.
「 In the Chinese market, trust the Chinese team 」
The main problems of foreign automotive companies not adapting to the Chinese market lie in two aspects:
Either, although a localized team is established in China, it is all managed by the foreign side. The team is large, but the efficiency is extremely low, and it is obviously unable to compete with Chinese local companies.
Or, all the intelligent functions that seem to be unable to be handled by themselves are thrown to Chinese suppliers, attempting to solve everything by purchasing capabilities.
In the former case, the generous treatment of foreign enterprises and the relatively cumbersome reporting process to the headquarters make the localized team only able to make some "minor innovations" that do not affect the overall product definition. In the end, when the product is launched, it still appears to be out of step with the times. The problem of the latter is similar. It is equivalent to almost finishing cooking the dish, and then handing it over to domestic technology companies for embellishment and packaging, which also cannot truly touch the pain points of consumers.
But Jaguar Land Rover did not do this.
Last year, Jaguar Land Rover and Chery jointly announced to the outside world:
• Jaguar Land Rover and Chery Automobile signed a strategic cooperation letter of intent, authorizing Chery Jaguar Land Rover to use the "Freelander" brand on its new electric vehicles.
• The new product line of Chery Jaguar Land Rover will adopt the reborn "Freelander" brand and Chery's pure electric platform, and be produced at the Chery Jaguar Land Rover Changshu Factory.
• The "Freelander" electric product line will be produced in parallel with Chery Jaguar Land Rover's existing product line.
• "Freelander" will launch a series of electrified products in the Chinese market through a specific network and achieve overseas exports in the future.
In simple terms, Jaguar Land Rover will jointly develop a new pure electric vehicle with Chery, use Chery's pure electric platform, be produced at the Jaguar Land Rover Changshu Factory, supply the domestic market first, and then export overseas.
Land Rover Changshu Factory (Source: Official Enterprise)
Joint research and development is the key to keeping pace with the times.
As an automotive company with a history of more than a hundred years, Jaguar Land Rover's car-making experience is already extremely profound. Although in the minds of the Chinese people, when thinking of this brand, what is often mapped in their hearts is the successful group represented by Jaguar Land Rover owners. But in fact, in terms of innovative technology, Jaguar Land Rover is actually more like a top technology company.
For example, in recent years, domestic automotive companies have begun to standardize panoramic imaging in new cars. Land Rover Range Rover used it in 2013. The function of opening the trunk with the foot was equipped on the Land Rover Discovery Sport in 2014. The laser headlights that domestic manufacturers are competing for were mass-produced and installed on the Jaguar F-PACE in 2016.
The all-aluminum body that domestic manufacturers have only begun to gradually popularize in recent years has already been proficiently used by Jaguar Land Rover in its own models, which can not only enhance the body strength but also reduce the body weight. After reducing the vehicle weight, both the energy consumption of the entire vehicle and the handling performance can benefit from it.
What kind of luxury cars do Chinese consumers need at present? Although everyone's answers are different, the common characteristics are almost recognized by everyone:
1/ Keep pace with the times and be advanced enough in electrification and intelligence.
2/ Retain the characteristics of luxury cars and have a unique skill in the driving or riding experience of the car.
3/ It would be best to have some brand history or brand story in addition to the basic product quality to show the personality of the car owner.
In this comparison, it will be found that the cooperation between Jaguar Land Rover and Chery just meets all the labels.
「 Sales are just numbers, continuous profitability is the goal 」
A new car model that keeps pace with the times requires continuous research and development investment that keeps pace with the times, and the source of research and development investment is the brand's profit ability.
Chinese consumers are used to measuring the success of an automotive company by looking at sales volume. But in fact, sales volume is just a number. As a commercial company, profitability is the most important indicator for an automotive company.
Recently, Jaguar Land Rover globally announced the sales and profit figures for the third quarter of the 2024/25 fiscal year (October to December 2024). In this quarter, Jaguar Land Rover's global retail sales achieved a 3% quarter-on-quarter growth. As of the fiscal year, it reached 320,622 units, achieving a positive year-on-year growth. The stable performance also helped achieve a positive result of 434,660 units in annual sales in 2024, with a year-on-year growth of 3.3%.
More importantly, in this quarter, the batch sales volume of the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Land Rover Defender models, which contribute the highest profits, further increased to 70%, all achieving double-digit year-on-year growth.
In the entire first half of the 2024/25 fiscal year, Jaguar Land Rover also achieved stable revenue globally, reaching £13.7 billion. Among them, the revenue in the first quarter reached £7.3 billion, setting the best performance in the same period. The profit in the first half of the fiscal year was £1.1 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 25%.
According to Jaguar Land Rover's expectations, the full fiscal year (April 2024 to March 2025) expectations remain unchanged, committed to achieving £30 billion in revenue, an EBIT margin of not less than 8.5%, and net cash return.
This is a revenue achievement that most automotive companies will envy.
And profitability represents confidence and the hope for subsequent development.
The pure electric version of the Range Rover will not be officially launched until this year, but the number of registered intended customers has continued to increase to more than 50,000.
After all, with a healthy development in 2024, Jaguar Land Rover's 2025 is also worth looking forward to.