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Gerry McGovern—the prolific car designer largely responsible for Land Rover‘s present-day aesthetic, the look of the new Defender, and most recently, the eyebrow-raising Jaguar 00—has reportedly been fired. His impact on both Jaguar and Land Rover has been immense, and his alleged sudden departure would be a huge deal.
Autocar India broke the news, pointing out that McGovern’s exit “comes swiftly after PB Balaji assumed the CEO role [of JLR] on November 17, 2025.” Back in January, that publication also shared leaked internal comms indicating strife within the company over some of the design and rebranding and the way it was being handled. Those docs indicate parts of the Jaguar rebrand were outsourced to Accenture Interactive (third-party consultants), which, yeah, would have made me mad too!
I dropped a contact at JLR a note to ask for confirmation, and the company replied but declined to comment.
McGovern’s title at JLR has been Chief Creative Officer. You can credit the sleek featurelessness of modern Land Rovers to his love of smooth lines. He’s credited with leading the design of the third-gen Range Rover, pretty much the last Rover that looked interesting (sorry), before making the brand’s subsequent SUVs look like mid-range microwaves (my opinion again, but the correct one).
But of course, he’s mostly been on people’s radar lately for championing the controversial Jaguar rebrand. It’s hard to say exactly how much of the high-concept, high-contrast video ads were directly from his brain—a big team has worked on the project, after all—but the cartoon Batmobile-looking luxury car and Dyson-style logo aesthetic are his babies.
I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone reading this site that the response to Jaguar’s total-180 brand pivot was, uh, pretty rough in comment sections around the internet. How it will play out for the business remains to be seen, since Jaguar hasn’t re-initiated sales yet.
It’s long been rumoured that McGovern was personally liked by Ratan Tata, who ran JRL’s parent company. Mr. Tata passed away last year, leaving Autocar India to speculate that “key support” for Mr. McGovern may have waned in the corporate titan’s absence.
But even if you don’t care about car-world corporate politics, this could be a very big deal for the companies and ultimately the cars themselves. Without such a visible figure pushing it forward, the Jaguar 00, as we’ve seen it so far, might have an even harder time swimming against the current of public commentary. I don’t think it’s likely that Jaguar will abandon its newly announced direction and vibe, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s altered to try and win back people who want Jaguars to look, well, old.
McGovern’s departure could also create a lane for a whole new look for Land Rover. I would love to see the brand get back to boxy, accessory-bristling designs, but I’m not a new-car buyer anyway, so what do I know.
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Automotive journalist since 2013, Andrew primarily coordinates features, sponsored content, and multi-departmental initiatives at The Drive.
