The Jaguar Land Rover design boss behind the Range Rover and the polarising Jaguar relaunch has abruptly departed the business just four months after its new chief executive took charge.
Gerry McGovern left the role of chief creative officer on Monday after 20 years at the business in which he oversaw the design of some of the company’s most successful cars as well as the launch of a new-look, pink electric Jaguar that drew the ire of Donald Trump.
Britain’s largest carmaker appointed PB Balaji as chief executive in August. Balaji, an Indian national, was previously the chief financial officer of Tata Motors, the Indian owner of JLR.
Balaji was due to take over the reins of a business that was performing well, generating nearly three years of consecutive quarterly profits. However, any chance of a smooth transition was dashed by a crippling cyber-attack in August that stopped all production at JLR’s factories.
JLR declined to comment on the departure and McGovern was still listed on the company’s website on Wednesday. Autocar India, which first reported on McGovern’s departure, said he had been removed with immediate effect.
David Bailey, a professor of business economics at the University of Birmingham, said the abrupt removal “has sent shock waves through the automotive world”. He said it would herald “much more than a routine management reshuffle” but rather “the symbolic end of an era” and was perhaps a sign that Tata was looking to exert more control.
McGovern at an event in LA in 2017. Photograph: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for JLR
McGovern returned to Land Rover in 2004 after an earlier stint and rose to be in charge of designing its key products, including its flagship Range Rover, its bestselling Range Rover Evoque and several other models.
His stewardship included hiring Victoria Beckham as a creative design executive in 2010. In 2017, tensions emerged after Beckham said at the launch of a special VB Evoque: “I’ve designed a car that I want to drive, a car I think [her husband] David wants to drive.” McGovern later said: “She didn’t design the car … I’ve forgotten more than that woman will ever know about [car] designing – to be a car designer takes years.”
McGovern was elevated to the role of JLR’s chief creative officer in 2021 by the then chief executive, Thierry Bolloré, giving him oversight of the struggling Jaguar brand as well. McGovern retained the role under Bolloré’s successor, Adrian Mardell.
Bolloré had scrapped an advanced plan for an electric Jaguar that followed on from previous models, and McGovern was tasked with completely overhauling the brand in an effort to end years of weak sales.
The product he came up with was a major departure from previous, fairly traditional Jaguars. The Type 00 targeted wealthy, younger, international buyers rather than going head to head with BMW as another executive saloon car. It featured a large, angular design with no rear window, and the initial concept design was shown in pink and electric blue.
The company faced a ferocious and at times hate-filled backlash from some quarters after a teaser campaign featured several androgynous models. Elon Musk and Trump criticised what Trump called a “stupid, and seriously WOKE advertisement”. McGovern, seen as assertive and sometimes combative by people with whom he has worked, said the car displayed “fearless creativity”.
McGovern’s departure raises questions about how much of the concept car will survive into production, although prototype models were at a fairly advanced stage before the hack disrupted production plans. A person who has driven the car said it would wow drivers.
The new electric Range Rover overseen by McGovern will also be a crucial car in JLR’s transition away from petrol and diesel. The design is nearly identical to the petrol version, but sales are expected to be delayed because of the cyber-attack. JLR had initially planned to make the first deliveries by the end of this year.
