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Jaguar Land Rover names ousted Renault boss as new CEO

LONDON — Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has picked ousted Renault boss Thierry Bollore as its next chief executive, with a mission to return Britain's biggest carmaker to profit after a big hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Bollore took over at Renault in January 2019 after the fall of Carlos Ghosn, but was always viewed as close to the French carmaker's longtime boss and was pushed out in October when the company was looking for a fresh start. Bollore will take over at JLR on Sept. 10, replacing Ralf Speth, whose tenure ends after more than 10 years. "It will be my privilege to lead this fantastic company through what continues to be the most testing time of our generation," Bollore said in a statement on Tuesday. JLR was hit this year first by disruption to sales in China and then by lockdowns across Europe and North America as the COVID-19 outbreak spread around the globe. In 2019, it cut jobs to address tumbling diesel sales, which helped it return to profit. But as the pandemic struck, it slumped to a pretax loss of 422 million pounds ($545 million) for the year ended March 31, 2020. The company has already taken steps to tackle the crisis, including agreeing to a loan facility of around $700 million with lenders in China and further staff reductions. JLR is also in talks with the British government over potential support, according to media reports. Bollore takes over a business that built just over 500,000 cars in 2019/20. He faces a number of tasks, including how to handle the Jaguar brand, which underperforms the Land Rover marque, how quickly to electrify its lineup and a potential hit from Brexit if trade barriers are imposed. JLR has a partnership with BMW on electrification, and parent company Tata Motors recently recommitted to the company. "Tata Group recognizes and values Jaguar Land Rover's future potential highly," said JLR Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran earlier this month. "That is why this company is central to our global automotive presence – a presence that we intend to develop for years to come." Related Video:         (Additional reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru and Gilles Guillaume in Paris; editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)

Junkyard Gem: 2000 Jaguar S-Type

My junkyard studies of Jaguars have focused mostly on the four-wheeled felines of the 1960s through 1980s, but plenty of more recent Jags may be found in U-Pull-type yards around the continent. Today's Junkyard Gem appeared in a Northern California boneyard last summer, and it had stories to tell. Once Ford took over Jaguar in 1990, the idea of a midsize Jaguar saloon to steal sales from the BMW E39 5 Series and Lexus GS seemed like an increasingly good idea, and so a name used on a mid-1960s version of the Jaguar Mark 2 was revived for use on a car built on the same platform as the Lincoln LS. Both the new S-Type and LS appeared during the 1999 model year, and both are fairly easy to find in your local Ewe Pullet today. American S-Type buyers could choose between a 3.0-liter V6 and various flavors of V8 (including a hairy supercharged V8 good for 400 horses in the S-Type R). This car has the V6, which was based on the Duratec out of the Taurus and made 281 horsepower. In theory, American S-Type (and Lincoln LS) buyers could get a five-speed manual transmission on V6-equipped 1999-2003 cars … but I've never seen a three-pedal S-Type/LS, and I've been looking hard. As you'd expect, European S-Type buyers could get both manual transmissions and diesel engines for the duration of the car's 1999-2007 production run. This car has a ZF six-speed slushbox. The interior looks to have been in good condition when the car showed up here, and the original manuals were still in the car. Some of the wood trim got a bit cracked in the California sun during the car's two decades on the road. That sure looks a lot like a Kia Amanti nose, doesn't it? The Amanti appeared a few years later and showed strong S-Type (and E-Class) styling influence. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Beyond beautiful. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. History repeating.

Land Rover will put a Covid-nuking air filtration system in future cars

Jaguar - Land Rover (JLR) is developing an air filtration system that inhibits up to 97% of viruses and airborne bacteria. Designed like a face mask for your car's HVAC system, it's built on Panasonic's Nanoe X technology. Most of the company's models (including the Land Rover Defender) currently come equipped with Panasonic's Nanoe technology and PM2.5 filtration. Nanoe X is 10 times more effective, according to the brand, because it relies on a high voltage to create trillions of hydroxyl (OH) radicals enveloped in nano-sized water molecules. Think of them as Roman guards in front of a fortress: they keep the bad out, and ensure only the good can come in. Viruses and bacteria proteins are denatured when they come into contact with the filtration system, meaning they can't reproduce or grow. The OH radicals also zap common allergens and mold, but they're harmless to humans. JLR stressed it's not relying on computer simulations to decide whether its filtration system works as designed. It asked British laboratory Perfectus Biomed to perform a test that simulates a ventilation system in recirculation mode for a 30-minute cycle in a sealed chamber. The results were encouraging: 97% of viruses and airborne bacteria were nuked. The carmaker pointed out Panasonic's Nanoe X technology has been independently proven to inhibit 99.995% of coronaviruses during a two-hour laboratory test carried out by French immunology lab Texcell. Future models from Jaguar and Land Rover will use this technology, though a representative for both companies declined to tell us when it will reach production, and which nameplate(s) will inaugurate it. Meanwhile, Honda launched its own coronavirus killer across the pond. It's a cabin air filter sold as a genuine replacement part that consists of four layers, including one coated with an active substance of fruit extract that inactivates nearly 100% of the viral aerosols it captures. It's available in Europe through Honda dealers, but it won't be sold in America. Jaguar Land Rover