Jaguar Land Rover’s special division may establish its own business to build high-performance vehicles

[Global Network Comprehensive Report] According to Bloomberg News on March 6, Jaguar Land Rover’s special unit (SVO) may not be limited to modifying existing vehicles, but plans to create its own independent model to compete with high-performance models from BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz.

Jaguar Land Rover has been working on adding new cars to broaden its market if it commissions a sports car from the high-performance division it established last year. Mercedes-Benz’s AMG division is understood to have built two cars, the SLS and the new GT, which last year were the best-performing models in Mercedes-Benz’s lineup.

Just as Jaguar Land Rover’s SVR (where the "R" stands for competition), Mercedes’ AMG, BMW’s M and Audi’s RS division are all making high-performance versions of their common models. High-performance cars have stronger engines, more sporty design elements, tuned suspension, and more expensive prices.

Peter Fuss, a partner at Ernst & Young, a consultancy, says the strategy makes sense for sports cars. "That’s the DNA of sports cars." The rise in AMG sales shows it’s a great way to attract more buyers of performance cars. "

sales target

Mercedes-AMG sold 47,500 units last year, more than twice as many as it has shipped since 2011. It accounted for 2.9% of Mercedes 1.65 million sales, a small but highly profitable share.

For example, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class high-performance version is equipped with an engine with an output of 550 horsepower, which is priced at 93,600 US dollars (about 586,400 yuan), which is 81% higher than the 195 horsepower version. The S65 AMG with an output of 621 horsepower is priced at 222,000 US dollars (about 1.39 million yuan), which is more than twice that of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class base sedan. The output power of the BMW 3 Series M Sport is more than doubled, and the price is 62,000 US dollars (about 388,000 yuan), which is more than 60% higher.

Perhaps the high-performance division will never account for more than 10 per cent of overall sales, but JLR hopes to sell more than 500,000 this year, Mr. Edwards said in an interview. This is an opportunity to broaden brand recognition.

Expensive SUV

In February, Jaguar Land Rover’s high-performance and specialty car division began selling Jaguar Land Rover’s most expensive SUV ever. The Range Rover Sport SVR costs 93,450 pounds (about 882,000 yuan). The car’s acceleration performance is better than that of the two-seater Porsche Boxter and Cayman.

Jaguar Land Rover is also putting the new unit in charge of car customization and legacy, Edwards said. As Ferrari and Rolls-Royce buyers are familiar with, Jaguar Land Rover offers customers the option to place their logo on the car. For Range Rover customers, the choice of personalization is very large. Customers usually spend a lot more on color matching, personalized interior, door materials, and dashboard, each of which is about 25,000 pounds (about 236,000 yuan).

In addition, the SVO division is also building a limited edition of the Jaguar F-Type Project 7, which is limited to 250 units, making it the best acceleration model in Jaguar cars. This month, SVO completed the first of six all-hand-built classic Lightweight E-Types.

(Internship Compiler: Zhang Zhaoqing, Reviewer: Liu Yang)