Jaguar Land Rover changes its letterhead, not its badges

British car-maker Jaguar Land Rover has taken its first steps towards rebranding as ‘JLR’, announcing a new corporate logo for its letterheads while leaving the existing badges on its cars.

In April 2023, Jaguar Land Rover announced it would move away from the ‘Land Rover’ badge and instead rely on the Range Rover, Defender and Discovery nameplates.

The Land Rover logo will remain, but will be less prominent on future models.

“Land Rover continues as a world-renowned and important heritage mark, remaining on vehicles, websites, social media and retail sites, underpinning the ... Range Rover, Defender and Discovery brands,” JLR said in a media statement.

The Land Rover badge is also less prominent on the company's Australian website.

The Land Rover Australia website now loads with the Range Rover, Defender and Discovery brands taking up the entire page, with no mention of Land Rover until users scroll down to the fine print.

Jaguar’s local webpage is largely unchanged and includes the brand’s text-only logo in its top-left corner.

As previously reported, Jaguar Land Rover’s corporate rebranding will occur alongside an investment of £15 billion ($AU27.8 billion) into future driving technologies across the next five years.

This includes developments in autonomous driving systems, artificial intelligence, digital technologies, and vehicle programmes, among others.

The company also claims it plans to transition away from petrol and diesel engines, with Jaguar going electric-only by 2025 while Land Rover is slated to follow by 2036 – almost 12 years after it launches its first electric car, due in 2024.

In Australia, Land Rover was one of the worst-affected by supply shortages caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a sales slump from 8879 vehicles in 2019 to 4348 vehicles in 2022 – a drop of 51 per cent.

Across the same period, Jaguar sales fell by 69 per cent from 2274 (2019) to 700 (200).

Between January and the end of April 2023, Land Rover sales have increased by 4.6 per cent compared to the 12 months prior (1871 in 2023 vs 1788 in 2022), while Jaguar’s free-fall has continued with reported sales down 46.5 per cent (145 in 2023 vs 271 in 2022).