Yahoo Finance Range Rover Sport to go electric as Jaguar Land Rover grapples with chip crisis
Land Rover revealed the newest addition to its lineup, an all-new Range Rover Sport. It's a cult favorite among the brand’s fans, with the mid-size SUV known more for its street prowess than its performance off pavement. But since it is a Range Rover, it can go off-road if needed with its advanced all-wheel drive system.
But the even bigger news is that the new Range Rover Sport, in addition to being offered with mild hybrid, plug-hybrid, and traditional V8 power, will have an all-electric version coming in 2024.
Range Rover Sport joins its big brother Range Rover in offering an electric vehicle (EV) version by 2024, as the brand pursues its mission of offering 6 EVs on sale by 2026, and having 60% of its sales coming from EVs by 2030.
Land Rover says it designed the new Range Rover Sport on a platform that would allow both internal combustion engines and electric powertrains, because that’s what its “diverse” clients wanted.
“That’s why the new platform was conceived from the start, having everything from a pure V8 through to a pure battery electric - it was important for us to make sure we satisfy all those [customer] needs,” says Rob Filipovic, Jaguar Land Rover Director of Product Planning in an interview with Yahoo Finance. “We still have those V8 purists and diehards, but equally, we have a lot of consumers out there begging for their Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports to be electrified.”
Inflation and semiconductors
Amid the EV transition, however, Tata Motors (TTM) — Jaguar Land Rover's India-based parent company, is going through some more acute concerns.
The company posted a surprise loss this week for its most recent fiscal quarter, citing the ongoing chip crisis stemming from COVID-related shutdowns in Asia.
"The two big worries are inflation and semiconductors. It is going to be a challenging few months," Tata Motors CFO PB Balaji said in a call with reporters.
Meanwhile Jaguar Land Rover says it expects the global chip shortage to last into 2023, which isn’t good news if the brand intends to launch two new EVs in 2024.
All isn’t so bad for Jaguar Land Rover, however, as the brand reported its order book grew 8.4% last quarter to approximately 168,000 vehicles.
ADR-listed shares of Jaguar Land Rover parent Tata Motors finished the day up around 9%.
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Pras Subramanian is a senior autos reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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