As the auto industry reacts to the threat of disruption in the mobility space, a Jaguar Land Rover executive has stressed the need for the company to rise above commoditisation and continue to adapt to changing market needs with vehicle designs that customers can be passionate about.
Sebastion Peck, MD of InMotion Ventures, JLR’s venture capital firm that invests in new start-ups, told Frost & Sullivan’s Intelligent Mobility Conference in London that good design is key to the future success of the premium car company.
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“We are a car company and we are also a design company,” he told delegates. “Design is about emotion, about bringing together, empathy, understanding what customers really want. It is creativity, not doing the obvious but doing something extraordinary, but also with rationality and sound, solid foundation. Branding is also a key aspect.”
Peck also referred to the example of high-end interior paints business Farrow and Ball. “Farrow and Ball turned paint, a commodity par excellence, into a luxury item,” he said. “Farrow and Ball leans heavily on the craftsmanship and heritage of its product. What they have done is exactly what Jaguar Land Rover needs to do,” he added.
He also told the audience that there a need to move the discussion on from mobility just being a commodity, to providing customers with choices and the “choices should be offering fantastic design solutions that give customers what they want, that appeal to customers on a deeply emotional level.”
Earlier this year JLR and ride-hail firm Waymo have announced a long-term strategic partnership that will deliver up to 20,000 Jaguar vehicles for Waymo’s driverless (autonomous drive – AD) fleet.
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By GlobalDataThe two companies say they will develop the ‘world’s first premium self-driving electric vehicle for Waymo’s driverless transportation service’.
JLR and Waymo (formerly Google self-driving car project) will work together to design and engineer self-driving Jaguar I-Pace vehicles and Waymo Jaguar I-Pace cars equipped with Waymo’s self-driving technology will start testing later this year.
Peck emphasised that the vehicle supply partnership with Waymo is a ‘deep engineering partnership’.
See also: Waymo and Jaguar Land Rover partner on AD
