TheDetroitBureau.com recently had the chance to sit down with Joe Eberhardt, president & CEO, Jaguar Land Rover North America, to discuss what the future holds for the brands.
The opportunity arose during the Land Rover’s inaugural “Defender Above & Beyond Service Awards,” which recognized seven small U.S.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit charities that are making a positive impact in their local community.
Each received a custom outfitted Defender SUV. Our conversation starts with a discussion of the awards. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TDB: You said that the idea for this came about during the COVID-19 pandemic. You saw your dealer body being very supportive of community efforts and decided you had to do something similar.
JE: Yeah, usually you have marketing plans, you have objectives, you have metrics. And none of that was at the heart of this. This truly was inspired by acts of kindness during COVID, and realizing that no matter how divided the country is in so many things, no matter how competitive the world has become, there is still a large portion of the American public that is good at heart and is just helping each other out in the most positive way possible. We looked at it mainly through the eyes of COVID and the health care workers and the support they needed.
But then you quickly realize that there’s so many other areas where this applies as well. It just became something like this had waited for the Defender for a very long time, and Defender had found it. But it wasn’t planned. And the feedback I received tonight was genuine, authentic and it didn’t feel like a marketing exercise. It felt like we’re part of these communities and these efforts and the way they connected with each other; it’s rewarding.
TDB: They were starstruck. It’s almost as if they couldn’t even believe it was really happening. The gratitude was just genuine.
JE: Yeah. And in a way, the most rewarding part, is that these are not organizations that have a professional fundraising arm and that rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in support every year. They live from one donation to the next.
And I just I’m trying to picture where else does it happen? Where do people say, “I want to take five hours, four hours a day to focus on rescuing people” or “I want to put in $300,000 that’s raised personally to enhance worker housing in the Hamptons?”
TDB: That’s what’s so amazing. You’d think that it that doesn’t exist any longer. But it’s unusual for a large company to focus on these smaller charities that really need the help.
JE: Yeah, and that was one of the founding principles: is there a need first of all, and can we make a difference? I mean, yes, you can make a difference with anything. We’re partnered with the Red Cross, globally, and we continue to do that. But that’s a well-funded organization, right? They have the structures in place. And we’ll work with them and get discounts. But some of these organizations, they have no car, or a 25-year-old car that broke down.
TDB: Allow me to shift gears for a second. Let me ask you about Jaguar. You’ve announced the brand is electrifying in 2025. What’s happening between now and then? I mean, will we see some electrification hybrid? I know you don’t get into future product. I understand that. but what will we be seeing between now and then?
JE: We made our announcements for both brands, and those are still valid. So Jaguar will go all electric starting in 2025. We’re working at the moment on the product portfolio, and we will make that announcement when we’re done. If we had decisions, I would probably be able to talk about it. But it’s really a work in progress.
Then, on the Land Rover side, and that’s what doesn’t get reported as much, we are also committed to a very swift transformation into an all-electric future by 2035. Every Land Rover will have an electrified, fully battery-electric variant. I don’t think it will be 100% electric; I think it will be probably 60% or so in electric vehicle sales. But yeah, Land Rover will go in the same direction.
And that’s because I don’t think the question is whether the industry will transition into an electric future, it’s just a question of how quickly and how can we provide the required infrastructure to make it a reality. For me, the pivot point was reached when you have pickup trucks, the most quintessential American car is now being electrified and not in a way that it’s the second-best car. The torque is there, the towing capacity is there. You could potentially use the battery power for a power take off. I mean, there’s so many interesting things you can do with that. And then sports cars are all of a sudden are electrified, and that’s when I think the big shift will happen.
But can the infrastructure keep pace with them? That’s the hope, right? We got to have the charging infrastructure. And not so much from a range perspective. I think that’s all taken care of. But I want to plug in my car at home, and somebody’s got to provide that infrastructure. And then once everybody plugs their cars in, the grid needs to produce electricity that’s needed and it needs to be produced in an environmentally friendly way, in a sustainable way. So how do how does that happen?
TDB: And how does it happen by 2035?
JE: And that’s where we need the government to step in, and not just say, well, it’s got to happen by 2035. But to answer the how.
TDB: Given how fuel economy deadlines have proven slippery in the past, do you think that 2035 is going to be a drop-dead date? It seems a little hard to believe because it’s really not that far away.
JE: That makes our business so difficult to plan and predict. I mean, depending on the political agenda, you go from everything needs to be electric, to who cares about electric and oh, by the way, your fuel economy standards, just don’t worry; we’ll relax them. Literally two years later, not only are we going to take that back, but we’re now making them more stringent than the Obama Administration. I mean, it’s hard to plan a business this way. So at the moment, it looks like there’ll be more stringent and electrification but who knows?
TDB: Given the volume for Land Rover is so much larger than Jaguar, has the has there been any thought that maybe Jaguar isn’t a sustainable business? Has there ever been talk about that?
JE: No. We have always made it clear that Jaguar is an important part of the company. The brand has incredible history. It is still a very much recognized brand around the world. And we believe it’s something we can and should capitalize on. But it needs to be given new purpose. It needs to be transformed in the modern age, but I think the core brand DNA resonates, did resonate and will resonate with customers again, if it stands for something that’s unique differentiated and worthy of the Jaguar brand. And I’ve got to give credit to the new management that came in and said, “Look, we have a vision for Jaguar, and the current product plan is not 100% delivering on that vision.’ The cars we had in the pipeline were great cars; they were every bit as competitive as they needed to be, but not 100% aligned with that vision. And it was tough to say like let’s take a pause. Let’s hit the reset button and then we’ll go a different way.
TDB: Some of this was certainly has been affected by Ian Callum retiring and Gerry McGovern taking over. Did that come after, or did that happen at the same time?
JE: I don’t know what the what the exact chronology was. But certainly Gerry coming in, he set out the strategic mission for the company. And then we had an internal — I don’t want to use the word competition — but different teams were looking at how we can interpret the future of Jaguar. And Gerry took control of the whole design operation, as a matter of fact. More than design, it’s the whole question of how will our brands be positioned and interpreted going forward? And then he had a couple of teams working on what the future Jaguar is going to look like. And it was almost like an internal competition and I just can’t wait for that process to be done. And for us to decide and what the future will look like. I mean, there’s so many passionate people at Jaguar Land Rover and I think the brand deserves a unique positioning. And I’m convinced that we will find what that is going to look like.