Jaguar fires back at designer dismissal claims

Recent reports that Jaguar Land Rover’s chief creative officer Gerry McGovern was fired have now been refuted, with the British marque releasing a statement on the matter.

The revelation comes from Automotive News Europe, that reportedly received the following statement from Jaguar Land Rover on December 12:

“It is untrue that we have terminated Gerry McGovern’s employment and we do not intend to further comment on speculative stories.”

According to Auto News Europe, the British carmaker wouldn’t confirm whether McGovern still worked at JLR.

So, is it all a big publicity stunt to garner more interest in the brand’s imminent all-electric re-launch and its controversial Type 00 concept that was designed by McGovern himself?

We doubt it. Such a move wouldn’t be very tasteful, and we don’t think it’s Jag’s style.

Either way, it appears the British marque has some challenging times ahead of it, from being accused of ‘throwing away’ its heritage during last year’s controversial rebrand that “nobody likes” to the major leadership shake-up that occurred more recently when chief executive officer Adrian Mardell stepped down.

Mardell has since been replaced by former Tata Motors chief financial officer P.B. Balaji as a part of the Indian conglomerate that owns JLR.

Balaji was originally believed to be behind McGovern sacking.

When the news first broke in early December, carsales reached out to Jaguar Land Rover Australia as well as the global JLR team for comment, both of which declined to comment on the matter.

Join the conversation at our Facebook page
Or email us at editor@carsales.com.au