Donald Trump has attacked Jaguar Land Rover’s divisive rebranding strategy, hours after Britain’s largest carmaker announced its new boss.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that the auto company, owned by India’s Tata Motors, was “in absolute turmoil” and claimed that the “CEO resigned in disgrace”.
His post on Monday evening also described JLR’s recent much-criticised advert – which showed a diverse group of models in brightly coloured clothing set against a vibrant backdrop and was designed to launch the company’s rebrand – as a “stupid, and seriously WOKE advertisement”.
Trump asked: “Who wants to buy a Jaguar after looking at that disgraceful ad?”
The post came shortly after JLR announced that PB Balaji would become its new chief executive and would take the reins in November. The group finance chief of JLR’s parent company, Tata Motors, since 2017 will become the carmaker’s first Indian CEO.
He will replace Adrian Mardell, who is retiring after three years as JLR’s chief executive and following 35 years working for the company.
Balaji said in a statement it was his “privilege” to lead JLR, adding: “I look forward to working with the team to take it to even greater heights.”
Mardell said he believed he had “cemented JLR’s position in the automotive industry during a time of incredible change”, and wished Balaji success in his new role.
In recent months, JLR has been hit by the impact of Trump’s tariffs, and reported a 15.1% drop in sales in the three months to June, after a temporary pause in exports to the US. It has also opened a voluntary redundancy scheme for up to 500 managers in an effort to save costs.
Sales are expected to improve after the introduction of a UK-US trade deal, which will implement lower 10% tariffs on the first 100,000 exports. The company has reported a profit for the past 10 consecutive quarters after a turnaround effort.
However, the Guardian revealed in July that JLR was delaying the planned launches of its new electric Range Rover and electric Jaguar models to give it time for more testing and to allow demand to pick up.
The electric Range Rover, which will be made in JLR’s main factory in Solihull in the West Midlands, will not be delivered until 2026, instead of late this year, as previously planned. Two planned Jaguar models are also expected to be pushed back by several months.
JLR has been slower than some of its rivals to embrace electric vehicles but has recently made investments in building hybrid cars as well as preparing for EV production.
During Mardell’s tenure, JLR released a controversial 30-second social media clip with the tagline “copy nothing”, before the unveiling last November of a new electric concept car.
JLR’s rebrand and advertising campaign, which did not feature a vehicle, immediately drew more than 160m views on social media, but also brought an online backlash late last year, including from Republicans and rightwing commentators in the US. The owner of X and chief executive of Tesla, Elon Musk, posted on the platform: “Do you sell cars?”
It prompted the carmaker’s managing director to say he was disappointed by the “vile hatred and intolerance” in the comments directed at the models in the video.
JLR was approached for comment.
