Automotive News Europe — 2025-07-31
Automotive Industry
JLR is changing CEOs at a perilous time.
JLR confirmed July 31 that Adrian Mardell is retiring after 35 years at the automaker, the last three as CEO.
Mardell will end his career at JLR on December 31.
Though JLR recently posted its 10th consecutive profitable quarter and made $2.5 billion for its fiscal year that ended in March, the headwinds it is facing are hurricane strength.
Earlier this month, JLR said it was laying off 500 managers as it prepares for lower margins and a weaker dollar. The U.S. is JLR’s largest market.
The company’s highest-volume vehicle, the Slovakian-built Land Rover Defender off-road SUV, is subject to a 15 percent U.S. import tariff. So is the slower selling Discovery. The rest of JLR’s lineup — the Jaguar F-Pace and six Land Rovers — is made in the U.K. and subject to a 10 percent tariff, up from 2.5 percent. That rises to 25 percent after 100,000 vehicles are exported from the U.K. to the U.S. in a single year.
Earlier in July, JLR pushed back the launch of battery-electric versions of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport.
It’s unclear if the $125,000 Jaguar GT, the company’s first new Jaguar since the 2018 I-Pace EV, will be shown this year and go on sale next year as promised.
The company under Mardell’s tenure struggled to improve its quality rankings, which have been at the bottom of J.D. Power’s Vehicle Dependability Study for the past two years.
And the reboot of Jaguar, which rolled out late last year, brought a storm of criticism, not only for the Type 00 concept car’s radical departure from Jaguar’s iconic design cues, but also for the use of androgynous models and a new logo.
JLR has scheduled financial results for the first quarter of its 2026 fiscal year for August 8. The news will likely reflect lower volumes — due in part to a 30-day pause in shipments this spring to the U.S. — and winding down Jaguar’s lineup.
“Adrian Mardell has expressed his desire to retire from JLR after three years as CEO and 35 years with the company,” JLR said in a statement. ”His successor will be announced in due course.”
It’s unclear if JLR will replace Mardell with an insider, look outside the company or even outside the industry.
One possibility is Rawdon Glover, Jaguar’s managing director. Glover took a high-profile role in the debut of the Type 00 in December and then calmy weathered blistering attacks on social media and elsewhere.
Mardell’s departure marks the latest CEO change at a major automaker after new leaders took over at Renault, Stellantis and Volvo. The industry has been battered by a drop in sales in China, weak demand for electric vehicles in Europe and U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade onslaught.
JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors, is among a number of carmakers to withhold profit guidance during the tariff uncertainty. JLR does not have any U.S. factories.
A video last year teasing Jaguar’s revamp as an electric-only brand received intense criticism. Jaguar isn’t making any cars until the new lineup is ready.
During Mardell’s tenure, JLR pushed ahead with a strategy of developing fully electric options for all its models by the end of the decade. He also invested heavily in beefing up the security of its SUVs after they became magnets for thieves in the U.K.