Speaking on the eve of the LA motor show, JLR CEO Ralf Speth said that the firm “needed certain growth, but not utmost growth”, and was not keen on playing chase with its German rivals in terms of sales volume, but instead planned to grow at a steady rate.
“We won’t sell millions, or be high street,” he said about JLR, which has trebled its annual car sales to almost half a million since Tata took over the company in 2008.
Talking about the company’s German rivals, he said that BMW sold more cars in the last quarter than the British automaker could sell in the entire year of 2015.
Speaking to our sister publication Autocar UK, Speth said, “BMW is like Park Lane or Mayfair on Monopoly, they can have what they want. We’re the boutique: we can have cool vehicles with good designs that are good to drive and have good options.”
The quote was in reference to a question on just how big JLR could grow in terms of new models. On this subject, he added: “There are so many opportunities to expand the product portfolio, but we can’t do it all. We have to prioritise.”
Speth also revealed that the company was planning new cars all the way until 2022/23, though the role of all-electric models was still under consideration with Jaguar currently having a model under development with the manufacturer currently facing issues regarding weight, infrastructure, battery reliability, and battery life.
He also revealed that he felt frustrated that the Jaguar C-X75 supercar could never make production as the hybrid technology needed to power the car is still in its infancy stage and not yet production-ready.
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Viraaj Bhatnagar
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