Jaguar Land Rover is shedding light on its ambitions for the future, which will include more powertrain flexibility with hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric options for the Land Rover brand while the strategy remains to keep Jaguar all-electric, with the production version of the polarizing Type 01 to be revealed later this year. But the plan is an ambitious one with lofty goals that could require major adjustments to sales strategies and manufacturing.
Land Rover Defender Facelift spy photoCarBuzz/Valnet
The automaker, owned by Tata Motors, is targeting savings of £1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) in fixed costs and expenses for materials and warranty claims, en route to a lower breakeven sales threshold of 300,000 vehicles globally per year. JLR tells CarBuzz that threshold currently is 380,000 units.
JLR recently posted a fiscal year 2026 net loss of £244 million ($327 million) while selling 324,000 vehicles globally in 2025. To achieve its targets, JLR CEO PB Balaji makes it very clear the US market in particular will factor heavily into the equation.
JLR US Assembly ‘Could Be Justified’
2024 Land Rover Defender 90 V8Land Rover
Balaji, who took over as JLR’s boss in November, says the “Reimagine” strategy will launch five new products over the next two years, with increased focus on North America, JLR’s biggest market. “We are also exploring new high potential segments for our Defender brand, which will allow us to offer tailored luxury products and experiences for even more of our US clients,” he said.
“Our aspiration, in the coming years, is to grow our US business to the size of the entire JLR business as it exists today.”
This week, he told the Financial Times the carmaker would “give everything” to boost sales to “millionaires and billionaires” in the US, where he sees “the biggest growth opportunity” for premium brands.
Does US growth require JLR – or Stellantis, through the recently announced collaboration – to build vehicles locally, to avoid Trump administration tariffs on imported vehicles? Balaji told the Financial Times that US manufacturing “could be justified.”
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CarBuzz reached out to both JLR and Stellantis today for more details on the partnership between the two companies, asking specifically if JLR vehicles will be built in Stellantis plants in the US. A JLR spokesperson offered the following statement:
“It’s too early to talk about facilities – at the moment it’s a non-binding (memorandum of understanding) exploring opportunities to collaborate on the Defender brand. Details on facilities and production will be much later – once we have outcome of feasibility study for the collaboration.”
Likewise, Stellantis isn’t sharing much detail, either. “It’s early stages and the non-binding MOU has been signed with next steps including a feasibility study. It’s too early to get into any more details,” the automaker told CarBuzz via email.
The current-generation (L663) Defender SUV launched in 2020 and could be due for a significant refresh. Even more illuminating from today’s JLR announcement is that the Stellantis collaboration will “explore delivery of new products for the Defender brand specifically designed for the US market.” In another signal that could point to its need for US assembly, JLR said today it wants to “strengthen its supply chain resilience.”
Press image of the Range Rover Sport SV CarbonLand Rover
It’s no wonder that Defender, which is JLR’s bestseller, gets a lot of attention. In the most recent quarter, JLR said the Defender, Range Rover, and Range Rover Sport combined to make up 77.1% of total wholesale volumes, up from 66.3% a year ago.
JLR produces the Defender 90, 110, and 130 SUVs in Nitra, Slovakia. A new model from the Defender family has been confirmed as the second vehicle to launched on the new Electrified Modular Architecture platform, following the all-electric Range Rover. Originally slated for BEVs, the EMA has been adapted to accommodate hybrid-electric vehicles as well.
Range Rover EV To Come As Hybrid, Too
A 2026 Land Rover Discovery Tempest parked on a cliff-sideLand Rover
Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, built in Solihull, UK, will remain on the flexible Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) producing mild hybrids, PHEVs, and full BEVs. The Range Rover Electric and Range Rover Sport Electric arrive later this year. The automaker said it will reveal more info later this year on the first electric Range Rover, to be built in Halewood, Merseyside, UK. That EMA-based Range Rover is expected to be offered as a full hybrid as well in the future.
The Discovery SUV has been around for 35 years and is Land Rover’s all-time bestseller with two million units sold, but it doesn’t sound like there’s a major push to grow Discovery sales in the same way as Defender. “It will be brought into the future with propulsion flexibility and innovations in product design with announcements on confirmed plans to come,” JLR said today.
Jaguar Type 01 PrototypeJaguar
Meanwhile, Jaguar remains all-in with battery-electric vehicles, having cleared its portfolio of internal-combustion models. The Jaguar Electric Architecture, for EVs only, will underpin the Type 01, which is intended to “radically reimagine” Jaguar as a “distinctive, bold, and aspirational brand.” JLR will build the Type 01 at Solihull.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
Jaguar was ripped to shreds by critics confounded by the Type 01 when it came out in concept form in December 2024, accompanied by a quirky social media campaign that seemed to have little to do with the car. The car itself wasn’t well received either, with critics finding it cartoonish and too much of a departure from Jag’s design legacy. The brand’s longtime design chief, Gerry McGovern, departed earlier this year.
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But it’s necessary to look beyond the Type 01 and realize that Land Rover is paying the bills, so it’s only fitting that much of today’s strategic growth news centers around Defender and Range Rover, the moneymakers. And while the US will get more attention, beyond JLR’s key markets in Europe and China, the automaker is looking broader at “high potential markets” in India and the Middle East. JLR has committed to invest £18 billion ($24.1 billion) by 2029 in future technologies, vehicle platforms and “transformation,” so top management will need to start seeing results before long.
Source: JLR, The Financial Times
