[dennis]

Here's what he had to say about the i-Pace and EV's:

CNBC: On the Jaguar side, you just launched your third SUV. And it’s also your first all-electric model. Do you expect any real sales volume for the new I-Pace?

Eberhardt: I don’t know. No one has really made much of a market except for Tesla because of the mystique of Elon Musk. The I-Pace is a really cool car and it drives real well. It may be the future but we just don’t know yet. It’s tough for the industry as a whole to know what the natural demand is. The big problem for all of us manufacturers is residual values (which) are a fraction of what they are on regular cars. Some competitors are seeing only 20 percent, which doesn’t allow you to make a case for a competitive lease.

CNBC: The industry is being driven by three trends: the explosion in SUV sales, the emergence of electric vehicles, and the push for autonomous driving. Only one of these is actually being driven by consumers, the shift to SUVs.

Eberhardt: Electrification could become consumer driven. What it needs is for the industry addressing customer pain points: range, charge times and costs. Anyone who drives a car like the I-Pace knows how much fun it is to drive and it can be very practical if you have a charger at home. To get to large scale adoption, all these points have to be addressed and I think it will be long-term. Some people say it will be 25 percent (of new vehicle sales) by 2025. I don’t think it will be that quick.

That's a lot of equivocation IMO. He should be more of a cheerleader for what is clearly his most innovative product. It could be the flagship for the future direction of JLR, rather than "It may be the future but we just don’t know yet."

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/28/jaguar-land-rovers-joe-eberhardt-has-a-plan-to-make-profits.html

 

[Mister Dave]

He's refreshingly honest. In a sea of EV misnomers and all-out liars he tells it as he sees it. Kudos to Eberhardt for not only telling the truth, but for taking an unknown risk. I think his interviewer hit another nail on the head:

Only one of these is actually being driven by consumers, the shift to SUVs.

The last time I saw this sort of straight talk it was the CEO of Lexus. He was excoriated for it.

 

[sciencegeek]

I'm all for realism but he is missing the point and an opportunity. To chalk up Tesla's success to "the mystique of Elon Musk" is only half true: only true with respect to his board and stockholders. Many people actually want Teslas for what they are, cutting edge EVs. In other words, he's not quite getting it and so he's lukewarm on the i-Pace's future. It's too bad, he should be a cheerleader as dennis points out and focus on the growth of EVs, which is actually also consumer-driven; it's just not as much of a juggernaut like the shift to SUVs.

 

[dennis]

I'm all for realism but he is missing the point and an opportunity. To chalk up Tesla's success to "the mystique of Elon Musk" is only half true: only true with respect to his board and stockholders. Many people actually want Teslas for what they are, cutting edge EVs. In other words, he's not quite getting it and so he's lukewarm on the i-Pace's future. It's too bad, he should be a cheerleader as dennis points out and focus on the growth of EVs, which is actually also consumer-driven; it's just not as much of a juggernaut like the shift to SUVs.

And the i-Pace is both an SUV and an EV which could put Jaguar in a strong position serving both trends. Eberhardt also missed the fact that his EV "pain points" of range, charge times, cost and residual values have been better solved so far by Tesla than the other brands. That explains Tesla's success much more than Musk's mystique.

 

[sciencegeek]

Yeah and it's an incredibly well-performing SUV, as I can attest to especially after this trip where we really put it through its paces haha.

 

[Mister Dave]

To chalk up Tesla's success to "the mystique of Elon Musk" is only half true.....

Eh, I dunno. I find him to be quite mysterious. His new rap song being a good example of strangeness. :grin2:

I'd find a link for it but I have to have some morals.

I think Eberhardt might have said it better if he referred to the brand's vogue in some markets. Vogue is something Jaguar has in spades.