Currently reading: Jaguar Land Rover's SVO lays out three-tier strategy
Special Vehicle Operations to focus on creating ‘ultimate’ luxury, off-road and sporting performance models

Jaguar Land Rover’s new Special Vehicle Operations division is a “business within a business” that has been tasked to “think outside the box”, according to its MD, John Edwards.

The SVO division is currently putting the final touches to its new facility near Ryton, south of Coventry. Known as ‘Oxford Road’, the new factory will be home to 150 JLR specialists and will have its own paint shop.

“We are smaller and more entrepreneurial by nature,” Edwards said at the recent Geneva motor show. “Speed to market will be key, and we aim to be a high-margin business.”

Edwards revealed that SVO was working on a strategy that would see the division producing vehicles under three new ‘ultimate’ brands: ‘ultimate luxury’, ‘ultimate sporting performance’ and ‘ultimate off-road ability’. The ‘ultimate sporting’ models will compete with the higher-end offerings from Mercedes-AMG and BMW’s M division and will be sold under the SVR brand.

The first SVR model, based on the Range Rover Sport, has just been unveiled. The ultimate off-roaders will be badged SVX. The sub-brand name for the luxury models has not yet been fixed, but the Range Rover SVAutobiography could be the first model to be branded under the new category.

“We will operate under three principles: profit, promote and protect,” said Edwards. “First, SVO must make a profit. Second, we must promote JLR’s wider business. And third, we must protect the integrity of our brands.”

JLR currently sells around 150 ‘individual’ cars each year but is looking to significantly increase that number. SVO will be able to build one-off models for customers, although the creation of such models will not include any re-engineering work. “We can’t disrupt the factory flow,” said Edwards. “Limited-run cars like the Project 7 are more complicated. We have to get a balance between scale and exclusivity.”

As well as models like the Project 7, SVO will be responsible for building an armoured version of the Range Rover. The company expects to build about 20 each year, priced at £250,000 each.

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Citytiger 21 October 2014

I just wish

the "J" part of JLR would stop messing around with vanity projects and actually start getting is core fleet in order, why does it take so long for them to release anything new, unless of course its just a be-spoilered and more powerful version of an existing vehicle. Why have we not even seen glimpses of an XE estate or coupe.
Cobnapint 20 October 2014

@Roadster

Have you put your tissues away yet Roadster? Well you'd better get them out again, for crying into. RR no longer claim that the SVR is 'the' fastest SUV round the ring, just 'one' of the fastest. The MY2015 Cayenne turbo out performs it, and by all accounts out handles it too. And the Turbo S hasn't even turned a wheel yet.
Winston Churchill 22 October 2014

FIDJI

Cobnapint wrote:

Have you put your tissues away yet Roadster? Well you'd better get them out again, for crying into. RR no longer claim that the SVR is 'the' fastest SUV round the ring, just 'one' of the fastest. The MY2015 Cayenne turbo out performs it, and by all accounts out handles it too. And the Turbo S hasn't even turned a wheel yet.

This is the troll formerly known as Fidji. Ignore him.

289 31 March 2015

@ WC

Are you the unapointed Forum administrator now WC?
I mean, do you ACTUALLY have anything mildly interesting or educational to say about motor vehicles ?
JIMBOB 20 October 2014

Very interesting

Darren Moss wrote:

Edwards cited the need to properly “define the DNA” of the brand before it could be appropriately applied to Jaguars. Using it to signify extreme all-wheel-drive versions of Jaguar models wasn’t ruled out.

Interesting approach. There was never enough brand value for 'Quattro' to be applied to other VAG cars, and I can't recall a similar arrangement recently where a sub-brand is applied across two major marques. I would hope that the 4x4 section of SVR focuses on off-road ability and design rather than speed and bling (the sight of 2 tonne lowered Range-Rover Sports with blacked out windows being driven recklessly is now an annoying cliche). It would be good for this to be trend-setting and intelligent rather than an in-house version of Overfinch, which I am sure would have been acquired had the BHP+Bling mix been the priority.