JLR CEO Bollore quits after two years at helm

PUNE: Tata Motors, India’s biggest automaker by revenues, on Wednesday said its British luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover’s CEO Thierry Bollore has resigned citing personal reasons.

His resignation comes just two years after he took on the challenging role in September 2020. Bollore’s exit comes as JLR struggles to ramp up production amidst industrywide supply chain issues and in making meaningful headway on electrification.

Back in February 2021, Bollore, who headed Renault SA earlier, announced plans for Jaguar to exit combustion engines by 2025, and introduce electrified variants of Land Rover from 2024. The carmaker has not given much further detail on its plans such as where it will build electric models or where it will source batteries from.

The Mumbai-based Tata Motors, in a regulatory filing, said Bollore’s last day will be December 31, 2022.

“Taking over from today as Interim CEO at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will be Adrian Mardell,” it said.

Mardell has been part of JLR for 32 years and is a member of the executive board for three years.

“I want to thank Bollore for everything he has done at Jaguar Land Rover. The foundations for a successful transformation have been laid, leaving the company well poised for the future,” said Tata Sons, Tata Motors and JLR plc chairman N. Chandrasekaran.

In the September quarter, JLR reported revenue of 5.3 billion pounds and its wholesale volumes (excluding China JV) rose 18 per cent year-on-year to 75,307 units. JLR lowered its guidance for FY23 as it faces a shortage of specialised semiconductors.

JLR now expects to maintain a marginally positive Ebit margin for the current fiscal, compared with the earlier guidance of 5 per cent.

The underperformance of the arm, which contributes over 60 per cent to Tata Motors’ top line, has weighed on the Indian carmaker's overall performance.