Most of the conversations around Jaguar Land Rover, and in particular Jaguar, have been quite angsty over the last 12 months. People have wondered if the brand was destroyed forever, with some going so far as to speciously report that the company was going to be killed. That’s not what happened, and in fact, JLR reported its best profits in a decade. What?
The Morning Dump today is all about turnarounds. First, we’ll talk about that perceived about-face at JLR, which was always built on silly assumptions. Next, it’s Chinese automaker Xiaomi, which everyone talks of as the second coming. It’s doing the Tesla speedrun by going from the next big thing to the company everyone complains about in record time.
Subaru thinks it’ll eventually become fully electrified. Eventually. Its ambitious plans are running into the harsh reality of reverse globalization. Even China, the leaders in vehicle electrification, are thinking about maybe some other options.
Jaguar Land Rover Profits Rise 15% In Fiscal Year 2025
I was sitting in a hotel in Notting Hill last year, visiting London on a sort of last-minute lark of a trip. My daughter was still jet-lagged and asleep. My wife, who had arrived days earlier and had adjusted to the time change, was out at some museum already.
Looking down at my phone, I noticed a lot of chatter online that Tata was going to kill its Jaguar brand. This sounded wrong to me. Like the British version of an American hamburger, all the parts were there, but it somehow didn’t add up. Being ahead of the American press, I jumped into the story and was quickly able to piece together the game of telephone that resulted in this little bit of fake news.
Part of the issue was that Jaguar has long planned to seriously course-correct its own brand, resulting in it winding down production for a few months in order to start the shift to pure electrification. The brand would again court controversy later that year with a tone-deaf and silly rebranding. A lot of Internet Tough Boys got big mad at Jaguar and claimed that the brand was dead, again. Art Basel-inspired goofiness aside, Jaguar’s sense that it needed to rebrand probably wasn’t wrong.
Either way, the claims of Jaguar’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. The company’s Fiscal Year, which ends in March, was the best one for the company in ten years. Profits were up 15% year-over-year, including a Q4 that saw profits rise 32% (that would be Q1 by the calendar). The EBIT margin was 10.7% for the first three months of the year, bringing the total to 8.5% over the previous fiscal year.
How is this happening? The other big number to look at is revenue, which was basically flat between FY2024 and 2025. A great way for Jaguar Land Rover to make money, apparently, is to stop building Jaguars while selling the inventory they do have. Obviously, that trick only works once. A surge of tariff-induced panic buying pulling forward sales probably didn’t hurt, either.
What does next year look like? Reuters was on the call with parent company Tata Motors, which is looking at the potential tariff impacts and rethinking how much profit it can expect to make this year:
Tata Motors’ Chief Financial Officer PB Balaji said higher tariffs will have some implication on demand, though premium cars are expected to weather higher levies better.
“We will probably be able to see the implications of all those (tariffs) in the coming quarters,” Balaji said.
JLR will look to other regions, including the U.K. and newer markets, to mitigate tariff impact.
“We are very clear we will do everything in our hands to drive growth,” Balaji said. JLR will need to keep a close eye on cash and costs, he said.
JLR is in an interesting spot. The latest trade deal outline is good for Jaguar and Range Rover, as both build vehicles in the United Kingdom. The Defender, though, is built in the EU. At the same time, a drop in tariffs with India could help the company find other places to sell cars.
The Xiaomi Backlash Came A Little Earlier Than Expected
Like much of the Western Press, we here at The Autopian have been intrigued by the sporty, Taycan-sized SU7 electric sedan from Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. Ford CEO Jim Farley famously loved the one he borrowed. A prototype version of the super-fast Ultra trim spanked Tesla at the Nürburgring.
Lately, though, the headlines have turned a bit against the upstart carmaker. People started crashing the cars in a way that suggested the car didn’t have brakes to match its horsepower. Then, a fatal crash involving a car being driven while under the control of the vehicle’s assisted-driving system blew up on social media.
According to Reuters, all of this is leading to a sales backlash in the country:
New orders for the SU7 fell 55% in April from March and the trend continued in May, with a 13,500 orders placed in the first two weeks of the month, Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note on Wednesday.
That compared to 23,000 orders in the second week of March alone, a weekly all-time high.
Xiaomi was pulled into further controversy last week after it apologised for what it called “unclear communication” following complaints from customers.
SU7 owners said the company had falsely advertised the design of a dual-vent carbon fiber hood it offers at an additional charge of 42,000 yuan ($5,826) on its SU7 Ultra.
Why were they mad? Because the vents weren’t actually vents! Lol.
Subaru Might Slow Roll Its EV Plans
Attending the New York Auto Show this year, you’d get the sense that Subaru is all-in on electrification. The brand showed both the new Subaru Trailseeker EV and a handsomely revised Solterra.
According to Automotive News, global uncertainty is causing the company to at least mix up the timing:
CEO Atsushi Osaki said the overall direction toward electrified vehicles remains unchanged.
But the pace of Subaru’s rollout and the amount of money it plows into the technology is under review as the company braces for sliding sales and withholds earnings guidance.
“We are re-evaluating our plans, including the timing of investments, in light of not only today’s rapidly changing environment but also medium- to long-term external business factors surrounding our company,” Osaki said May 14 while announcing fiscal year financial results.
Subaru’s good times have been a bit at risk, given that, unlike Toyota and Honda, it’s been more heavily import-dependent.
China Loves The EREVs, Or REEVs, Or Whatever
I don’t know if it’s possible to be on the jock of a concept, but we are definitely jock-riding EREVs, or Range Extended Electric Vehicles, or REEVs, as S&P Global refers to them (I much prefer the term EREV because it is onomonapoetic in a way that REEV isn’t). [Ed note: I don’t know about jocks, but I can tell you that I think automakers continuing to build money-losing EVs instead of EREVs are making a big mistake. For modern-day America, and even globally where we’re seeing the EV push slow down a bit, they’re just the right answer. I cannot believe nobody has offered one here since the 2021 BMW i3. -DT].
For all the hype around Chinese electrification, consumers in China also love various hybrids, especially in large vehicles where they make a lot of sense. S&P Global Mobility was on hand in China for the Shanghai Auto Show and walked away expecting EREVs to continue to be a big part of the mix:
According to S&P Global Mobility’s latest light vehicle powertrain production forecast, the manufacture of light vehicles with REEVs in Greater China surged to almost 1.233 million units during 2024, representing a 4.1% share of light vehicle production that year.
S&P Global Mobility forecasts that Greater China will remain the largest production hub for REEVs over the coming years. We expect this powertrain type to make up a 5% share of light-vehicle production in the region in 2025, rising to 8.7% in 2027 and 10.2% in 2030.
This growth will be driven by the continued expansion of China’s broader new energy vehicle market, along with increasing exports to global markets. The rise of REEVs will also align with the introduction of China’s fuel economy regulations.
Bring on the EREVs.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
In honor of today’s theme, it’s “You Spin Me Round” by the enjoyably weird British band Dead or Alive. I would definitely watch a Peter Burns biopic starring Dick Valentine from Electric Six.
The Big Question
Is Jaguar doomed? Or will it be fine?
Top photo: Jaguar
Peter Burns, RIP.
I read that when he died, he was so broke that a funeral/ burial service would not have been possible if it weren’t for Boy George stepping up last minute to pay for it all out of his own pocket.
Sad if true, he seemed to be an interesting and unique artist.
“onomonapoetic(sp)” ?
How about onomatopoetic!
This is quite amusing as just yesterday there was quite the row in parliament when Starmer proclaimed that JLR deserves to die as a company. Much comedy ensued when Starmer clamed Farage had recently said the same thing about the company. Farage pulled faces implying he made no such statement at Starmer and laughed at him. Unfortuantely, no spittle was spewed to my dismay.
Probably it’s not the J part that makes money bur LR, no?
We need that JAAAAAAAAAAAAAG
article! So we can read about when Jaguar had much better designs, etc.
Their new stuff is just awful…even if they’re doing ok, that new marketing they did was still terrible; and that there are people who have bad taste. Yeah, yeah, it’s all subjective…but whatever…some things are just plain bad
Whatever that candy colored commercial was supposed to be, I simply don’t think it landed.
Also, I did not see any mention in the article of the possibility that Jaguar revenue is up for the year because their target customer base is rushing to their local dealership to grab one of the last “real Jaguars made by Jaguar before they went crazy and turned into whatever the hell you call this.” As an Old from the late 1900s who lived through “New Coke,” when people hoarded as much original formula Coca-Cola as they could get into the house before it disappeared from the shelves, Jaguar having a banner year feels suspiciously like the script to a reboot of a movie I’ve seen before.
Or just selling them in the same numbers (top line revenue is flat) without the cost of producing them (profits are up.)
In defense of the “internet tough guys” that were “big mad” at JLR, that campaign and the car they announced are completely ridiculous.
The mixed upper and lower case letters in Jaguar still cause me to cringe.
I was recently driven across a large city in China by the proud owner of a new Xiaomi SU7, who insisted on showing off the autonomous driving capability.
Watching the analysis of the detectors on the main screen was amazing, clearly identifying the type and movement of other road users and pedestrians, but the car made at least two very strange and slightly frightening decisions during the 20 or so minute drive.
The worst was when the navigation had clearly anticipated the need to get into the right lane to make a turn in plenty of time, but the car stayed in the left lane until the last moment, then veered across three lanes of traffic and narrowly missed a lane divider just before the junction.
The owner was so proud of his car, I stayed schtum, but that system is not ready for primetime.