Adrian Mardell retires after 35 years at JLR

Adrian Mardell, CEO of JLR, is stepping down after leading the company for three years. During that time it delivered its best profits in a decade.

Mardell was appointed as CEO in 2023, following the departure of Thierry Bolloré. He has led the Jaguar and Land Rover brands through one of the most tumultuous periods in their respective histories.

Evidently his successor will be announced shortly. 

Mardell has been instrumental in JLR’s financial turnaround, with huge losses posted after the COVID pandemic. Just last year it reported the best profits in a decade.

That’s largely on the back of the highly profitable Defender and Range Rover models. It is expecting a 10 per cent profit margin next year. 

Mardell has overseen JLR’s new House of Brands retail strategy. Defender, Discovery, Range Rover and Jaguar will each become distinct brands in their own right. They will also have their own marketing strategies.

But perhaps the most newsworthy of Mardell’s initiatives was the unveiling of the radical Jaguar Type 00 concept (below). This marks the beginning of Jaguar’s transformation as a high-end electric brand. It will vie with the likes of Bentley and Porsche.

The first of these new Jagaurs, a four-door super-GT rival to the Porsche Taycan, is now in the final stages of testing. An unveiling is due by the end of the year, with a launch expected in mid-2026.

Of the brand renewal, Mardell said he was “certain we will have wait lists which are significant relative to the volumes we aspire to with the first product”.

Mardell leaves JLR in a position of greater stability than when he started but it still faces headwinds.

Chief among those is the imposition of new 10 per cent tariffs in the vital US market, which accounts for a huge proportion of JLR sales.

But that levy only applies to the first 100,000 cars shipped to the US in a year. Above that the 25 per cent tariff applies.

Models made in the EU will attract a 15 per cent tariff in the US, which applies to Defender and Discovery, both built in Slovakia.

Another possible roadblock is the downturn in EV uptake, forcing  JLR to delay the release of the Range Rover EV. This may also impact on when new Jaguar models come on stream.