Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell is stepping down as boss at Britain’s second biggest car maker after less than three years at the helm, the manufacturer confirmed on Thursday.
Mardell, 64, has been at the company for more than three decades including the last two years as chief exec during one of the most transformative periods in the firm’s recent history.
This includes spearheading a remarkable financial turnaround for the company, which has seen it bounce back from heavy losses and debt around the beginning of the 2020s to posting its best profits for a decade.
JLR reported a pre-tax profit of £2.5billion in 2024-25.
But arguably Mardell’s biggest involvement has been his role in Jaguar’s controversial ‘woke’ rebrand and shift to an electric-only premium car brand from 2026 – including the unveiling of the polarising Type 00 concept.
A spokesperson for JLR told the Daily Mail: ‘Adrian Mardell has expressed his desire to retire from JLR after three years as CEO and 35 years with the company. His successor will be announced in due course.’
Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell, pictured with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in April, will step down as boss at Britain’s second biggest car maker, it has been confirmed
Mardell, 64, has been at the company for more than three decades including the last two years as chief exec during one of the most transformative periods in the firm’s recent history – including steering Jaguar’s divisive rebrand
Mardell, who joined JLR in 1990, had a stint as chief financial officer from 2019 before being appointed chief exec on 16 November 2022.
He moved into the company hot seat as replacement for the outgoing Thierry Bolloré, who dramatically quit after the company limped to losses related to supply chain issues triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
By the last fiscal year, Mardell has successfully coordinated a meteoric turnaround for the business, with JLR posting its strongest pre-tax profit result in a decade for the year ending 31 March 2025.
Meanwhile, revenues were flat at £29billion for the fiscal year, despite a 1.7 per cent decline in the final quarter of the year.
Its success has been driven by record wholesale volumes of its Defender 4X4s, which sold 115,404 units over the 12-month period.
Mardell was appointed CEO in 2023. He moved into the company hot seat as replacement for the outgoing Thierry Bolloré
In contrast, just 26,862 Jaguars were sold worldwide in the financial year – a 45.8 per cent drop – after production of all models ceased in November as part of a planned ‘sunset period’ for the manufacturer, its dealers and its customers to prepare for the company’s hotly-debated electrified relaunch.
Despite the contentious Jaguar rebrand – which saw the marque axe its iconic ‘growler’ badge is favour of a more contemporary logo, and unveil a glossy advert with diverse models and no cars – JLR as a business is on track to achieve a targeted 10 per cent profit margin by 2026, thanks primarily to its highly profitable Defender and Range Rover SUV models.
Commenting on the performance, Mardell said in May: ‘This strong and consistent performance, the commitment of our people, partners and clients and the appeal of our luxury brands will support our response to current global economic challenges including the evolving global trading environment.’
Arguably Mardell’s biggest involvement has been his role in Jaguar’s controversial rebrand and shift to an electric-only premium car brand from 2026
Mardell has also overseen the debut of Jaguar’s divisive Type 00 concept – the car that previews the British brand’s all-electric future from 2026
During his tenure, Mardell has also restructured JLR with the ‘House of Brands’ retail strategy.
This sees Defender, Discovery, Range Rover and Jaguar each individually marketed as distinct brands in their own right.
His departure comes in the wake of trade deals both for the UK and EU with JLR’s biggest export market – the US – which will provide greater stability for the immediate future.
In April, the UK secured a more favourable trade deal that reduced the US import tariff on its exported cars from 25 per cent to 10 per cent – a levy that came into effect on 30 June.
This was a major boost for the nation’s second biggest car producer, which churned out 257,110 units last year at its sites in Solihull, Castle Bromwich and Halewood. Only Nissan (282,124 vehicles) made more passenger cars than JLR last term.
That said, the tariff only applies to the first 100,000 cars shipped to the US per year, meaning any JLR exports exceeding that volume will be subject to the higher 25 per cent levy.
The more recent confirmation that the EU too has negotiated better terms with President Donald Trump means European-made motors will be hit with a reduced 15 per cent tariff.
This will be welcomed by JLR, which currently builds its volume-selling Defender and Discovery at its state-of-the-art Nitra plant in Slovakia.
However, like many other car makers, JLR continues to battle several headwinds, not least the decline in appetite for electric vehicles among private buyers.
In May, Mardell confirmed JLR’s strongest pre-tax profit result in a decade. Its recent success has been driven by record wholesale volumes of its Defender 4X4s, which sold 115,404 units over the 12-month period
Despite a financial turnaround, JLR earlier this month announced it would be making some 500 UK jobs redundant
Earlier this month, the manufacturer confirmed it would be axing up to 500 management jobs in the UK, shedding around 1.5 per cent of its domestic workforce of more than 33,000 personnel in what it dubbed ‘normal business practice’ in a statement.
It declined to say which sites would be affected, but said the role reductions were spread across the firm’s management team.
Mardell’s replacement – who will be announced it due course – will now face the monumental task of navigating JLR’s wider transition to electrified cars.
Only a fortnight ago, it was reported that the eagerly anticipated arrival of the first all-electric Range Rover has been postponed.
Mardell’s replacement – who will be announced it due course – will now face the monumental task of navigating JLR’s wider transition to electrified cars. Reports emerged earlier in July that the new Range Rover Electric (pictured) has been delayed until 2026
Having previously states the Range Rover Electric will be in showrooms by the end of this year, JLR has written to customers to tell them that deliveries will not start until 2026.
The wording on the company’s website has also been updated to reflect the postponement.
And it’s not just the Range Rover Electric that is being delayed; two models set to ring in Jaguar’s all-electric future have also been pushed back several months’ including the production version of the Type 00 concept originally pencilled to arrive in August next year.
JLR has told us that its ‘plans’ are ‘flexible’, saying that models will be launched ‘at the right time’ but has doubled down on its commitment to a 2030 deadline where it will offer electric versions of all its cars.
The Daily Mail approached Tata for comment but JLR’s parent company declined to provide a statement.
