With declining sales and lackluster transformation, Jaguar Land Rover can hardly hide its downward trend.
The luxury car brand Jaguar Land Rover is once again deeply troubled by quality issues.
On June 30, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the United States stated that it has launched a preliminary assessment of 92,000 Jaguar Land Rover vehicles to investigate whether there is a risk of front wheel steering knuckle breakage. The front wheel steering knuckle connects the front wheels to the braking system, and a defect may increase the risk of axle breakage in the vehicle. This investigation will clarify the scope, severity, and cause of the problem.
It is reported that the models involved in the investigation are the Land Rover Range Rover Sport (2014 - 2017 models), which are produced at the Halewood plant in Liverpool, UK. No similar problems have been reported in the Chinese market for now.
However, Jaguar Land Rover has not escaped quality problems in the Chinese market either. On March 14, Jaguar Land Rover launched a large - scale vehicle recall campaign in the Chinese market. Starting from August 15, 2025, more than 632,000 problematic vehicles will be recalled one after another.
The main reasons for the recall are the fatigue failure of the limiter in the phaser and logical problems in the engine control module software. In extreme cases, it may cause the vehicle to fail to start or lose power while driving, posing a safety hazard. The recalled models include the domestically produced Jaguar XEL, the domestically produced Land Rover Discovery Sport, the domestically produced Land Rover Discovery Sport Edition, and the domestically produced Land Rover Range Rover Evoque.
It cannot be ignored that the frequent quality problems and recall campaigns have not only seriously affected Jaguar Land Rover's sales but also greatly damaged its brand image.
Once a brand that boasted its "British heritage" and "all - terrain capabilities" and outshone its competitors, Jaguar Land Rover is now experiencing an unprecedentedly complex situation and the most severe survival test.
01. In trouble in the Chinese market
Jaguar Land Rover officially entered the Chinese market in 2010. To speed up its market penetration, in November 2012, Jaguar Land Rover and Chery Automobile jointly invested to establish Chery Jaguar Land Rover, with both parties holding a 50% stake.
In 2017, Jaguar Land Rover reached the peak of its development in the Chinese market. Its sales volume reached as high as 146,000 vehicles, setting a new historical record and accounting for nearly a quarter of its global sales. The Chinese market also became Jaguar Land Rover's largest single market.
After that, Jaguar Land Rover's development in the Chinese market took a sharp turn for the worse, and its sales showed a continuous downward trend. According to the data from the Passenger Car Association, in 2022, Jaguar Land Rover's retail sales in China were 134,400 vehicles, a year - on - year decrease of 17.4%. In 2023, its sales volume was only 106,400 vehicles, and it was difficult to rank among the top ten in the luxury car market.
The financial report for the 2025 fiscal year (from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025) shows that Jaguar Land Rover's sales in China were only 34,000 vehicles, a year - on - year plunge of 34%. This sales volume is not only far lower than that of second - tier luxury car brands such as Cadillac (233,000 vehicles) and Lexus (226,000 vehicles), but even less than its monthly sales at the peak.
The direct consequence of poor sales is the deterioration of performance. In the 2025 fiscal year, Chery Jaguar Land Rover's net profit was - £14 million (approximately RMB 130 million), while in the 2024 fiscal year, the net profit was £36 million (approximately RMB 340 million).
The shift from profit to loss in net profit and the sharp decline in sales expose that Jaguar Land Rover's living space in the Chinese market is being continuously squeezed, and it has fallen from the "leader" of second - tier luxury car brands to an edge player.
The inventory backlog crisis has further exacerbated Jaguar Land Rover's difficulties in the Chinese market. In July 2024, the research results of the China Automobile Dealers Association showed that Jaguar Land Rover, Beijing Hyundai, and Dongfeng Nissan were the three automobile brands with the most serious inventory backlogs. Among them, Jaguar Land Rover was particularly prominent, with an inventory coefficient as high as 2.55. Its inventory reached more than twice the monthly sales volume, far exceeding the industry warning line of 1.5.
To resolve the inventory backlog crisis, Jaguar Land Rover launched a large - scale promotion campaign. Taking the Jaguar XEL, which originally started at a price of RMB 299,800, as an example, the market terminal discount was as high as RMB 170,000, and the final price was almost halved, but it still failed to effectively boost sales. The Land Rover Discovery Sport (originally starting at a price of RMB 359,800) faced a similar situation. Despite a market terminal discount of more than RMB 150,000, its sales remained sluggish.
It is worth mentioning that inventory backlog will lead to a sharp decline in dealers' profitability. As of 2024, more than 30% of Jaguar Land Rover dealers in China were in a loss - making state. Some dealers were forced to close their stores or shift to other automobile brands, making the sales channel system of Jaguar Land Rover in the Chinese market show signs of "collapse." If dealers continue to flee, Jaguar Land Rover will inevitably fall into a vicious cycle of "declining sales - dealers' withdrawal - reduced market coverage - further decline in sales."
02. Slow progress in electrification transformation
Caught in the wave of new energy vehicles, the once - prosperous Jaguar Land Rover has lost its momentum. The key to breaking out of the development dilemma lies in whether its electrification transformation can be truly implemented.
Currently, the peak monthly penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China has approached 50%. While major domestic automakers and new car - making forces are frantically competing for the market "cake," Jaguar Land Rover has seriously fallen behind.
In fact, as early as February 2021, Jaguar Land Rover released the "Reimagine" strategic plan, announcing the full - scale launch of its electrification transformation. Based on this strategic plan, the Land Rover brand will launch six pure - electric models in the next five years. By 2025, all Jaguar brand models will be fully electrified.
In April 2023, Jaguar Land Rover announced that it would invest £15 billion in the next five years in carbon - neutral cycles, emission reduction, software, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, digital technology, and the expansion of technical personnel to accelerate its electrification transformation.
In addition, to support the electrification transformation goal, Jaguar Land Rover has also developed the MLA luxury electric architecture, the EMA luxury electric module architecture, and the JEA pure - electric platform exclusive to Jaguar models. Among them, the first two platforms both use an electric internal combustion engine system, which is compatible with both fuel - powered and hybrid models and also supports pure - electric models.
Therefore, the outside world generally believes that Jaguar Land Rover's electrification transformation is too conservative and lagging. The unclear technical route of gasoline - electric power may make it difficult for the brand to truly be competitive in the market.
In 2024, Jaguar Land Rover's electrification transformation was still very slow, and its various measures failed to keep up with the development pace of the Chinese new energy vehicle industry. However, Jaguar Land Rover does not intend to give up the Chinese market. Instead, it plans to rely on Chery Automobile to speed up the transformation.
In June 2024, Jaguar Land Rover signed a strategic cooperation intention agreement with Chery Automobile, authorizing Chery Jaguar Land Rover to use the "Freelander" brand on its newly launched electric vehicles, which will be built on Chery Automobile's pure - electric technology platform.
The "Freelander" is both an emergency measure for Jaguar Land Rover to deal with the crisis in the Chinese market and a strategic attempt to explore the path of electrification transformation. Its market performance will be the key for Jaguar Land Rover to reverse its decline. If it can successfully open up the luxury electric vehicle market, it will provide sales support and electrification transformation experience for Jaguar Land Rover. However, if the market response is cold, it will further accelerate Jaguar Land Rover's decline.
It is worth mentioning that the competition in the Chinese new energy vehicle market is already very fierce. In addition to the far - leading Tesla and BYD, there are also a number of new car - making forces and major domestic automakers closely following. Even if Jaguar Land Rover's electrification transformation goes smoothly, its development in the Chinese market is still full of uncertainties.
03. Quality problems lead to the collapse of brand reputation
The frequent quality problems of Jaguar Land Rover have become a major pain point in its development process.
In 2015, the CCTV 3·15 Gala named and exposed the gearbox defects of the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque. A large number of car owners complained about problems such as reverse gear failure and loss of speed while driving. In response, Jaguar Land Rover shifted the blame to the car owners, claiming that these failures were "extremely accidental and not widespread" and were caused by improper driving habits of domestic car owners, such as "driving too impatiently."
After that, Jaguar Land Rover began to experience frequent quality problems. For example, in 2017, Jaguar Land Rover carried out as many as eight recall campaigns in the Chinese market, with 106,000 vehicles recalled. In 2018, due to problems such as power loss and inability to charge, a large number of car owners of the Land Rover Range Rover Sport P400e launched collective rights - protection campaigns, and the issue was exposed by the media.
In addition, according to the new - car quality survey results of the market research and consulting firm J.D. Power, in 2019, the PP100 (problems per 100 vehicles) data of Jaguar and Land Rover were 123 and 130 respectively, ranking at the bottom. In 2021, the automotive reliability research released by J.D. Power showed that Jaguar and Land Rover were still among the bottom three in the list.
Among all the quality problems of Jaguar Land Rover, electronic system failures account for a relatively high proportion. According to the reliability evaluation index of the China Quality News Network, the electronic system failure rate of the Land Rover brand is 73.3%, and that of the Jaguar brand is as high as 75.9%. Common failures include problems with the ECU on - board electronic control system, the DCU on - board domain controller, and detection (radar, camera) failures. Components such as sensors, ECM (engine control module), and body control module are also prone to failure.
Engine problems are also one of the more prominent quality problems of Jaguar Land Rover. For example, a large number of car owners of the Land Rover Discovery Sport have complained about engine water pump failures, abnormal noises, antifreeze leakage, and stalling. The large - scale vehicle recall campaign launched by Jaguar Land Rover in the Chinese market on March 14 was also due to engine problems.
In the future, Jaguar Land Rover will either succeed in its transformation and regain its vitality or become more marginalized in the market competition. However, with the continuous advancement of electrification transformation, quality problems are likely to become a major obstacle to its successful transformation.
This article is from the WeChat official account "DoNews" (ID: ilovedonews). Author: Zhang Yu, Editor: Yang Bocheng. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.