Jaguar Land Rover Korea has continued to shrink the size of its showrooms and service centres over the past three years. Some even talk about whether the decision was made while considering exiting the South Korean market.
Last year, Nissan reduced the number of showrooms and service centers before exiting the South Korean market. Jaguar Land Rover South Korea has denied the exit rumors, saying the recent reduction of showrooms and service centers is aimed at improving work efficiency.
However, the rumors of the exit are due to a sharp decline in sales in recent years. After peaking at 4,125 units in 2017, Jaguar sales continued to decline to 3,701 units in 2018, 2,484 units in 2019 and 875 units in 2020. Last year, only 338 units were sold. This year, the situation is no exception. From January to March, 44 units were sold.
Lower sales volumes led to fewer showrooms and service centers. In the past three years, seven service centers have closed their operations. At present, there are only six service centers in Seoul: Gangdong, Dadi, Liangcai, Seongsan and Sungsui.
Photo caption: Robin Colgan, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover Korea
Land Rover's situation is not much different from jaguar's. It has been in a downward trend since 2018, when it surpassed 17,000 units and achieved its best performance ever. It dropped sharply to 7,713 units in 2019, compared to 4,801 units in 2020 and only 3,220 units sold last year. The situation is better than Jaguar. The Range Rover, the first luxury high-end SUV to be replaced in nine years, will be officially launched in July. More than 2,000 new Range Rover models are known to be booked.
One person familiar with the imported car industry asserted that "Jaguar will exit the business as early as this year and only sell Land Rovers." Last year, Jaguar Land Rover announced its ambition to take another leap forward as an electric vehicle brand. In addition, it announced that it will achieve carbon neutrality throughout the production and sale of vehicles by 2039. As part of this, all Jaguar models will be converted to electric vehicles from 2025 onwards. If Jaguar withdraws from the Korean market, it can be seen as an order to resume sales in South Korea after the electric vehicle lineup is ready in 2025.
Recently, Land Rover has been expanding its online sales. Reduce offline contacts and move them online. Through the web page, not only can you simply sign a car contract, but you can also immediately see the inventory of the car. Jaguar also does not rule out the possibility of switching to online sales.
The deepening polarization of the imported car market also raises another problem. While some brands, such as Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, have had to wait more than a year after signing a vehicle contract due to a surge in orders, the number of brands struggling with inventory handling is also increasing.
If the rumors of Jaguar's exit are not true, then It seems that Jaguar Korea will have to seriously improve the quality of its services and continue to launch new cars in the Korean market.