Jaguar Land Rover Throws In The Towel In The World's Biggest Car Market

2 weeks, 6 days ago - 22 May 2025, Carbuzz

Jaguar Land Rover Throws In The Towel In The World's Biggest Car Market

Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) is ceasing production of its own vehicles in China, the world's largest automotive market, choosing instead to brand Chinese-made platforms from 2026 under its brand name. The smart thing about this decision is that JLR is that, according to Automotive News, JLR is bringing back the name of the small Freelander off-roader, but using it as the brand name for the venture. The Freelander vehicles will be built by Chery in China on the T1X platform, which JLR has been involved in the development of since 2016.

China's Price War Creates Casualties
According to the report, Jaguar will cease production of its Chinese models by September, and Land Rover will end the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport by the end of 2025. It appears that the decision was made due to the price wars going on in China, where there is an abundance of brands and sub-brands using platforms designed to build multiple types of vehicles upon. JLR's choice suggests that the price war is spiraling into a race to the bottom, but the upper-end of the market is still fair game – it looks like JLR will still export the full-sized Range Rover and Defender models to China.

The Freelander-as-a-brand idea has been around for a while, and models will be plug-in hybrids made purely for the Chinese market. It's getting harder and harder for global automakers to compete, and that isn't likely to change under an authoritarian dictatorship with state-owned automakers, a preoccupation with protectionism, and a disregard for copyright infringement.

We Could See Freelander Go Global
For now, the Freelander brand will be China-only. According to JLR's CFO, Richard Molyneux, it's being put together with “Chinese attributes,” “Chinese costs,” and is “perfect for the Chinese market." However, we wouldn't put it past JLR to use the Freelander brand to build a range of smaller (read: more affordable), global vehicles to go with its large and expensive luxury models. JLR has been touting its “House of Brands organization," which identifies Range Rover, Defender, and Discovery, as individual brands rather than models.

The "House of Brands" idea is eye-rolling at best, cynical at worst, but introducing Freelander as an actual sub-brand to build small SUVs might be just the ticket. It would separate nicely from Land Rover so the name can retain its cache, but create a larger customer base and entry point to the brand. Of course, JLR has been making weird decisions and splashing money around on marketing and advertising companies rather than building upon its own identity, so who knows how it will play out in reality.