Autocar April 15, 2020

“WE SHOULD TAKE comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return.” Quoting the Queen isn’t something I expected to ever do in this column (although Her Majesty may well be interested in our Range Rover scoop, p4) yet this line of her address during the pandemic struck a chord. Because humans are of course capable of caring for more than one thing at once. A love of cars, and an interest in the industry and its well-being, is not mutually exclusive from a concern for the nation’s health, and that of ourselves and our nearest and dearest. For the bad news is racking up in the car world, too. New car sales were down 44% in the UK in March, a trend unlikely to be reversed…

“WE SHOULD TAKE comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return.” Quoting the Queen isn’t something I expected to ever do in this column (although Her Majesty may well be interested in our Range Rover scoop, p4) yet this line of her address during the pandemic struck a chord. Because humans are of course capable of caring for more than one thing at once. A love of cars, and an interest in the industry and its well-being, is not mutually exclusive from a concern for the nation’s health, and that of ourselves and our nearest and dearest. For the bad news is racking up in the car world, too. New car sales were down 44% in the UK in March, a trend unlikely to…

GOT A STORY? Email our news editor lawrence.allan@haymarket.com “The Mk5 Range Rover has been given an even more imperious and imposing look” The all-new, fifth-generation Range Rover is in the first stages of testing before it hits the showrooms at the end of 2021, tasked with leading Jaguar Land Rover out of the coronavirus-induced slump that’s expected to affect the global car industry for much of this year and beyond. Despite the closure of JLR’s production facilities and the paused launch of the new Land Rover Defender, it’s understood that there will be no let-up in the development of either the Range Rover or the battery-electric replacement for the Jaguar XJ, which will also go on sale late next year. Pictures of a disguised prototype test vehicle show the large…

GOT A STORY? Email our news editor lawrence.allan@haymarket.com “The Mk5 Range Rover has been given an even more imperious and imposing look” The all-new, fifth-generation Range Rover is in the first stages of testing before it hits the showrooms at the end of 2021, tasked with leading Jaguar Land Rover out of the coronavirus-induced slump that’s expected to affect the global car industry for much of this year and beyond. Despite the closure of JLR’s production facilities and the paused launch of the new Land Rover Defender, it’s understood that there will be no let-up in the development of either the Range Rover or the battery-electric replacement for the Jaguar XJ, which will also go on sale late next year. Pictures of a disguised prototype test vehicle show the large SUV undergoing a winter testing regime,…

The onset of a global pandemic came at a crushingly inconvenient time for Jaguar Land Rover. The company’s hard-charging cost-cutting programme was bearing fruit and last year’s collapse in Chinese market sales had started to turn around strongly. The Defender was rolling out of the Slovakian factory and destined to make some serious – and much-needed – money as the company’s massive investment in the ‘platform to end all platforms’ was entering its final 18-month stretch. JLR had around £6 billion to hand as of the beginning of March, but the total shutdown of the industry will hit the company hard – just as it will across the whole of the industry and beyond. According to research group AutoAnalysis, if the shutdown lasts throughout April, European car makers will see…

The onset of a global pandemic came at a crushingly inconvenient time for Jaguar Land Rover. The company’s hard-charging cost-cutting programme was bearing fruit and last year’s collapse in Chinese market sales had started to turn around strongly. The Defender was rolling out of the Slovakian factory and destined to make some serious – and much-needed – money as the company’s massive investment in the ‘platform to end all platforms’ was entering its final 18-month stretch. JLR had around £6 billion to hand as of the beginning of March, but the total shutdown of the industry will hit the company hard – just as it will across the whole of the industry and beyond. According to research group AutoAnalysis, if the shutdown lasts throughout April, European car makers will see a production…