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John Edwards Announces Launch Of Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations

There’s been a lot of talk about Special Operations, Engineered to Order and Individual Products Division over the past year. This was the first time I remember them talking about the Heritage section. I realize how this related to Jaguar but will this also include Land Rover? That’s my question.

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Jaguar Land Rover launches Special Operations division to meet the increasing needs and aspirations of today’s discerning customers.
Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations will focus on designing and engineering high specification vehicles, bespoke commissions, heritage products and branded goods.
Jaguar Land Rover will invest in creation of a new state-of-the-art Special Operations Technical Centre in the West Midlands.

(Whitley, Coventry UK- 12/06/2014) A new business division, Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations, has been created to focus on meeting the increasing expectations of today’s most discerning and enthusiastic car customers.

Under the lead of John Edwards, Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations will offer a range of products and services:

High specification vehicles that showcase the best of both brands, including high performance derivatives, ultra luxury products and limited run collector editions.
Truly bespoke commissions and an extended choice of colour and trim specifications and accessories.
Heritage products including vehicle recreations, servicing and restorations, and the creation and provision of heritage vehicle parts.
A new portfolio of branded goods that will engage with a wide audience of current and potential customers.

(more…)

Michael2014-06-16T20:34:09-04:00June 16, 2014|

John Edwards to lead new Land Rover Individual Products Division

Whitley, Coventry: Jaguar Land Rover has appointed John Edwards into the role of Managing Director of the newly created Individual Products Division with immediate effect. The new division will be responsible for designing and creating a portfolio of brand extending products, ranging from high value halo vehicles to lifestyle merchandise products.

In his new role, John will be responsible for the company’s ‘Engineered To Order’ division, accessories, licensing & merchandise activities, vehicle operations and heritage vehicles across both brands.

On the new appointment, Jaguar Land Rover’s Chief Executive, Dr Ralf Speth commented:"The introduction of the Individual Products Division is an exciting new opportunity for Jaguar Land Rover and is designed to sharpen our relentless focus on delivering outstanding products for our customers – past, present and future. John brings a wealth of experience to the role which will be integral to supporting our future growth strategy."

John Edwards joined Jaguar Land Rover as a graduate and has held a number of senior management positions, most recently Land Rover Global Brand Director during which time he oversaw a period of significant volume and profit growth for the Land Rover business.

Commenting on his new role, John said,"This is a great opportunity to establish a new business within a business. Both Jaguar and Land Rover are world renowned brands that evoke strong emotional connections with customers the world over. We intend to ensure that our product offering constantly evolves to further enhance the experience of owning one of our products. This new division aims to develop that additional dimension."

John continues to sit on Jaguar Land Rover’s Executive Committee.

Michael2013-10-05T11:40:32-04:00October 5, 2013|

Engineered to Order aka Land Rover Special Vehicles #landrover

One thing that stuck out for me in the Range Rover Evoque Special Edition with Victoria Beckham press release was the mention of Land Rover’s Engineering to Order (ETO) program. I hadn’t heard of this prior and had to do a little searching around. This appears to be a replacement/subset/superset of the Land Rover Special Vehicles.

The always interesting Jaguar Land Rover Careers site had this to say:

Engineered to Order (Special Vehicles Division)

Engineered to Order (ETO) is responsible for designing and developing personalised vehicles. Their philosophy is to provide unique customer features in a nimble and responsive manner. The following categories outline the department’s key work streams:

Luxury & Sports Brand Development – focussed on increasing the luxury and exclusivity of our premium products and enhancing Jaguar Land Rover’s performance attributes. (e.g. Jaguar XKR-S and Range Rover Ultimate )
New Vehicle Personalisation – develops unique design themes that enhance the core vehicle attributes (e.g. Jaguar XJ Supersport and Range Rover Sport body styling kit).
Accessories – designs and develops a versatile and comprehensive range of accessories that tailors a vehicle’s attributes and appearance to each customer’s requirements.
Specialised Products & Limited Editions – develops unique products in-line with customer and market requirements. This ranges from armoured vehicles that enhance customer security through to colour and material changes that differentiate the customer offering.

Not sure if Special Vehicles still exists but either way, that seems like a very cool job to have.

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And here’s the official PR they released on 4/23, I guess they had to fill everyone in:

Jaguar Land Rover Introduces Bespoke Engineering Division

Today at the Beijing Auto Show, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) showcased the Jaguar XJ Ultimate, a car developed by the company’s specialist ETO division. The division is responsible for extending the Jaguar and Land Rover brands with a series of ‘special edition’ models as well as a range of personalisation options allowing owners to tailor their cars.

Dr Ralf Speth, CEO, Jaguar Land Rover explained: "The specialist ETO division is the next step in the evolution of JLR as a fully-integrated premium automotive business. It is an extension to JLR’s world class engineering capability and further proof of JLR’s passion to meet customers’ demands."

Following the recent success of two earlier ETO-built cars – the limited edition Range Rover Autobiography Ultimate and the 300km/h (186mph) XKR-S, the fastest and most powerful production sports car Jaguar has ever built – the ETO division is now focussing on further expanding the company’s product offering.

Initially, as well as handcrafting the ultra-luxurious Jaguar XJ Ultimate, ETO will also be responsible for the Range Rover Evoque Special Edition, a collaboration between Land Rover and the British fashion designer Victoria Beckham. This hand-finished, bespoke vehicle with unique matt finish paint and rose gold accents is limited to a maximum of 200 examples worldwide.

The designers and engineers in ETO will work alongside the JLR Product Development teams on future products with a focus on offering additional luxury, performance and capability, exploring different facets of the brands’ personalities.

Jaguar XKR-S

The Jaguar XKR-S is a very different animal, engineered by ETO to push the outer edges of the performance envelope and explore the capabilities of the company’s lightweight aluminium architecture. The engineering involved went far deeper than simply liberating more power from the company’s renowned supercharged V8.

ETO worked with the Jaguar Design team to create the specific exterior changes – informed by Computational Fluid Dynamics – that allowed the car to cut the air cleanly and solidly at very high speed and developed bespoke machined aluminium suspension components to give the car even greater levels of agility and driver involvement, refining the entire package at Jaguar’s Nürburgring testing facility.

Range Rover Autobiography Ultimate (2011)

The Range Rover Autobiography Ultimate took the already luxurious Land Rover flagship model and added a level of craftsmanship and unique exterior and interior appointments to create a truly first-class experience.

ETO was responsible for the handcrafted interior that used the finest soft-feel leathers and unique veneers for the four individually tailored seats as well as the seamless integration of the iPads, machined aluminium laptop table and drinks chiller.

ETO also created the bespoke paint colours and alloy wheels individual to this model and, as a final unique touch, a teak-floored rear loadspace to evoke the decking of luxury yachts.

ETO will support the Jaguar and Land Rover brands by offering specialist products ranging from design and performance enhancements, to the development of a wider portfolio for customers to personalise their vehicles, and an extended capability in engineering armoured and specialist vehicles.

Michael2012-04-23T21:16:40-04:00April 23, 2012|