Four months into his new job as managing director of Jaguar Land Rover, Jeremy Hicks – the former head of Audi in the UK – must be experiencing feelings of deja vu.
He has a premium brand which he wants to see grow, with sporty R performance models and a range of SUVs. This is Audi all over again.
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The task of engineering that growth was made a little easier at the Geneva show with the introduction of the XF Sportbrake, a rival for the BMW 5 series Touring and Audi A6 Avant, plus the Range Rover Evoque convertible ‘concept’. The Sportbrake will go into production later this year but an addition to the highly successful Evoque range is dependent on reaction, although the convertible concept must rekindle memories of Hicks’s time at Audi – the Q5 was initially shown as a drop-top design study before becoming an estate for production.
“The Sportbrake opens up 20% more of the market in its segment for us,” said Hicks. “The Evoque convertible is at this stage purely to gauge reaction but the UK has a very strong convertible market [not to mention southern California where blinged up Range Rovers are very popiular – ed] so it does open up possibilities for us.”
More progress will be possible when, rather than if, JLR opts to go into the compact premium segment, however. “If we are going to grow we can’t rely on the existing segments,” he said. ‘That size of car (Audi A4, BMW 3 series and Mercedes C-class) gives is a great opportunity, and we are actively looking at it. It can open big doors for us.
“If you look at the four-cylinder diesel engines we have in the XF, they have doubled our market opportunities and made us much stronger in the corporate sales segment,” Hicks added. “Now we know we need to be much more active in contract hire and leasing.”
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