JLR boss Adrian Mardell has referred to as for an “urgent national conversation” about organised car crime, calling on the federal government to take a position additional to crack down on gangs, even when that comes as a substitute of tax cuts.
Concerns in regards to the high theft of Range Rover vehicles have led to a stories from homeowners of a pointy improve in insurance coverage charges. Asked in regards to the concern throughout a media name for JLR’s third quarter monetary outcomes, Mardell launched a passionate defence of the security of his agency’s vehicles, saying information suggesting a excessive theft fee of Range Rover and Land Rover Defender fashions has been exaggerated because of misreported information.
Mardell acknowledged that organised car crime was “a serious issue in this country” that was “touchdown closely on all [manufacturers]”, together with JLR.
He added: “Our purchasers are affected by that, and most of the people on this nation gained’t like that, whether or not they’re struggling or not.”
But he insisted that lots of the stories on the excessive theft fee of JLR autos was primarily based on previous or incomplete information that has been misinterpreted.
Citing the latest full year DVLA statistics for 2023, Mardell mentioned: “Contrary to a widely repeated myth, the Range Rover does not feature in the top 10 vehicles in the UK stolen for calendar year 2023. It is not Britain’s most stolen vehicle. There are no JLR models in the top three stolen vehicles in calendar year ’23.”
The car theft figures for 2023 present the Ford Fiesta was the UK’s most stolen automobile, forward of the Ford Focus. The Range Rover Sport was fifth, with 1631 stolen, the Range Rover Evoque (1489 thefts) was sixth and the Discovery Sport (954) was tenth. Those numbers cowl all vehicles on the street, no matter age.
Mardell famous that the DVLA information exhibits a 27.2% year-on-year decline in Range Rover theft and a 28.6% decline in Range Rover Sport theft. He additionally cited information displaying minimal thefts of the most recent Range Rover and Defender fashions.
“For [the] Defender, since launch in 2019, only 130 cars have been stolen out of 45,200 vehicles, a rate of 0.3%,” mentioned Mardell. “The Police National Computer exhibits solely 0.08% of latest Range Rovers – simply 11 autos out of 12,800 autos which have been handed over to purchasers since launch two years in the past – have been stolen. It’s 15 for the brand new Range Rover Sport.
“I’m not sure which other brand could actually claim such a high level of security and a low level of theft.”
Mardell mentioned the figures meant “there is no reason whatsoever why any insurance company should not gladly and readily insure those new vehicles – zero reason, in any part of this country.”