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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)

Here's today's round of auto plant closures in response to coronavirus

More automakers have shuttered factories, as businesses everywhere work to slow the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus — and as the pandemic slows sales and disrupts parts supply chains. On Friday, the following closures were announced: • Volvo will close its factories in Sweden and the United States from March 26 to April 14. Volvo's U.S. facility, in Charleston, South Carolina, makes the S60 sedan. Its assembly plant in Torslanda, Sweden, turns out the XC90, SC60, and V90. Other Swedish facilities make engines and component parts. A Volvo factory in Ghent, Belgium, that builds the XC40 and V60 closed earlier this week and is expected to remain offline until April 6. Volvo's four factories in China have been reopened after a shutdown earlier this year. • Jaguar Land Rover announced that it will suspend production at its assembly plants in the UK over the coming week. The shutdown is expected to last until April 20. Elsewhere, production continues at the company's factories in India and Brazil, and JLR's joint-venture plant in China reopened at the end of February. • Bentley is closing its factory in Crewe, England, for four weeks, effective today. • Bugatti has put its atelier in Molsheim, France, on hiatus. No date was given for when assembly of its supercars might resume. • Mercedes-Benz on Monday will shut down its SUV factory in Alabama and its van assembly plant in South Carolina. Both will remain closed for a minimum of two weeks. Tesla yesterday revealed that it will suspend operations at its Fremont, California, vehicle assembly plant next week, on order from local officials there. Yesterday's factory closure announcements also included the U.S. assembly plants for Toyota (until April 6), Volkswagen (through March 29), Subaru (through March 29), and Hyundai (no time period specified). They join GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, and Harley-Davidson, which earlier this week announced the suspension of production at their facilities. Plants/Manufacturing Bentley Bugatti Jaguar Land Rover Mercedes-Benz Volvo coronavirus

Jaguar F-Pace vs. Porsche Macan | Performance luxury crossover comparison

TRANSCRIPT: The luxury performance crossover. 10 years ago, the list of examples was only a few vehicles deep but today it seems like every luxury car company makes at least one of these. This specific example is a 2018 Jaguar F-Pace S and it happens to be Autoblog 's newest long-term test vehicle. And here's the thing: It's really great to drive. Welcome to the Jaguar F-Pace S. Under the hood we have a supercharged 3.0-liter V6 that makes 380 horsepower and 332 pound feet of torque, which pulls the F-Pace from 0 to 60 in just 5.1 seconds. That's a pretty sizable upgrade from the base model's 247 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque. The engine is paired to an eight speed automatic transmission that responds pretty quickly to the paddles when in sport mode. There are three driving modes to choose from: You have dynamic, normal and eco. Even though the F-Pace name sounds like the F-Type, aside from the powertrain, they really aren't related. It's named that because it's based on the rear-wheel-drive Jag XF, just like the E-Pace is on the XE and the J-Pace will end up being based off of the XJ. Even though the F-Pace is all-wheel drive compared to the rear-wheel XF, it is a rear-bias system, which means it belongs exactly where we are right now, on twisty, turny back roads. This is a Jaguar, which means it sounds good but it looks even better. In my opinion, this is the best looking SUV on the market today. The Caesium Blue is a new color in the U.S. for this model year and we opted to get the black package, which includes black side vents, a black grill and roof rails. This is a $70,000 luxury crossover and the materials, they're okay. The plastics, I don't know, they kind of feel cheap even with the luxury interior upgrade package. The 10-inch touch screen is pretty big, in a good way. And while the surround sound isn't the best that I've heard, it's perfectly serviceable, especially since all I want to hear is this engine. For $70,000, this is what you get: A beautiful SUV that performs incredibly on the road. But what if you want more? This Macan costs over $96,000, which is almost $30,000 more than the F-Pace S. If you wanted to, you could buy a base Cayenne and a base F-Pace for that kind of money. But with that price comes more power, thanks to this Macan Turbo's performance pack. 60 more horsepower and 90 more pound-feet of torque than the F-Pace S bringing the total to 440 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque.