IAB Report - JLR announces Special Operations division for custom, performance cars

Jaguar Land Rover announced a new division called Special Operations, which will cater to designing and engineering high specification vehicles, bespoke products and heritage products. The division, which is headed by John Edwards, will make high performance derivatives and more luxurious products based on the current range of JLR vehicles.

An RS version on the Range Rover Sport and a more luxurious offering of the Range Rover Long Wheelbase could be products to stem from this division. The division will also cater to bespoke orders and will offer an extended choice of color, trim specifications and accessories.

At the Auto Expo this year, Land Rover's design director Gerry McGovern had this to say about the Special Operations -

One of the things we're doing within the business is setup a new organization which is headed by John Edwards. That would be about bringing more individuality to the product and more choices..taking all our vehicles to the ultimate level. In the UK for instance there are many customization shops, which take our vehicles from the customer, ruin them, charge the customer 15,000 pounds, and void the warranty. They are in a way eating our lunch, so we want to get that part of the business back. People want something specific to their tastes and we want to give that to them.

The Special Operations division will have its technical center located close to JLR's Gaydon headquarters. The technical center will be occupied by about 150 employees including Paul Newsome, who was formerly with Williams Advanced Engineering and was the product chief of the C-X75 supercar concept. The technical center will feature a customer commissioning suite for bespoke services, Formula 1-inspired workshops and a fully automated paint facility, says JLR.

Apart from this, the Special Operations division will also focus on heritage cars including servicing and restoring them.

Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations - Press Release

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