Jaguar Land Rover appoints interim boss Mardell as CEO for 3-year term

Tata Motors’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), on Thursday announced the appointment of interim boss Adrian Mardell as the chief executive officer (CEO) for a three-year term. The carmaker also made acting chief financial officer Richard Molyneux’s role permanent.

“Adrian Mardell was appointed interim chief executive officer on 16 November 2022, having been chief financial officer and a member of the JLR Board of Directors for three years’ prior,” a statement said.

JLR veteran Mardell was appointed to the interim role in November 2022, when Thierry Bollore resigned due to personal reasons. Mardell joined JLR in 1990 and has held a variety of positions.

 

Molyneux was appointed acting chief financial officer on December 12, 2022, following six years as finance director, operations, JLR.

On Wednesday, Tata Group announced plans to set up a $5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in the UK that will have JLR and Tata Motors as anchor customers.

This would be the first giga-factory of Tata Motors outside of India. The plant is expected to become one of Europe's largest battery cell manufacturing sites when it begins production in 2026. It is also one of the largest investments in the UK's automotive sector that would create 4,000 highly skilled jobs and thousands more in the supply chain.

JLR has embarked on an ambitious journey to become an “electric first” luxury carmaker by 2030. Its peers Audi and Volvo are eyeing 100 percent battery electric vehicles (BEV) by 2033 and 2030, respectively, while BMW and Mercedes are eyeing 50 percent BEV by 2030.

Analysts at Ventura Securities said that JLR is eyeing 60 per cent BEV sales by 2030 and 100 percent BEV sales by 2036. In April, JLR announced a plan to invest £15 billion over the next five years to achieve its electric road map, which includes investing in manufacturing facilities.

The Halewood plant in the UK will become an all-electric production facility and the engine plant in Wolverhampton, the UK, will produce electric drive units and battery packs for JLR’s next generation vehicles; apart from evolving its marquee brands

JLR wholesales grew by 30 per cent year-on-year in the June quarter of 2023 to 93,253 units (excluding China JV), while retail sales grew by 29 per cent to 101,994 units, riding on improved supply of electronic chips and improvement in supply constraints.

It had an order book of 185,000 units.