News : Evoque clocks up half million

Evoque Group Shot 1

The Range Rover Evoque celebrated its fifth year of production at Halewood. With more than half a million sold globally in more than 180 countries since 2011, it’s Land Rover’s greatest sales success story.

Since the first Evoque rolled off the production line on 4 July 2011, sales have increased five-fold from just over 22,000 in 2011 to more than 108,000 in 2015 – with a new Evoque now rolling off the production line every 170 seconds. At the same time, the workforce has also trebled to more than 4000, with 1500 recruited specifically to support the launch of this vehicle in 2011.

Globally, the Evoque has picked up nearly 200 awards including AROnline’s Car of The Year in 2011. Halewood Operations has also picked 11 regional business awards and recently won its first national award as it took home the ‘UK Manufacturer of the Year’ crown at the Insider Made in the UK Manufacturing Awards 2016.

Jaguar Land Rover has invested £600 million at the Halewood plant since 2010 to support the Range Rover Evoque, Land Rover Discovery Sport and the Evoque Convertible. The Evoque is also the fastest selling Land Rover of all time, accounting for one in four Land Rovers sold around the world in 2015. Local production also started in China in 2015 and, more recently, announced in Brazil.

Richard Else, Jaguar Land Rover Halewood Operations Director, says: ‘During my 25 years at Jaguar Land Rover it has been the last five years that have been the most eventful, exciting and rewarding. The impact which Evoque has made to our business and to Halewood is nothing short of transformational. I am immensely proud of the Halewood team; their pride, passion and commitment to getting the job done and going above and beyond is second to none.’

Keith Adams

30 Comments

  1. I don’t begrudge their success; if that’s what people want, good luck to them and JLR for making money and jobs.

    But am I the only person who thinks that the Evoque styling looks ugly and distorted ? From a side profile, I’ve always thought the rear end looks like its been squashed and flattened; as if the designer’s pen slipped and went downwards rather than continuing in a more horizontal direction.

    • Nope totally agree. The new RR Sport looks similar, as if some one put a compressor to the Evoque and pumped it up!

    • No, you’re not the only one. There’s someone else who has posted. So there’s two of you!

  2. Well done too Land Rover. Great example of producing a quality product with design that has huge appeal for what the market wants these days – so many forums knock this as over priced and moving away from the core brand values but the success is well deserved and revenue generated will support new models inc a new defender. If only BL and Rover products of the past could have replicated this global appeal

    • People who spout drivel about ‘core brand values’ have no clue what they are talking about. There were some people who moaned about the original Range Rover when that was launched in 1970, and that is the key thing here; there will always be some people who cannot look forward, cannot see the need to evolve and embrace new ideas and opportunities – because if you don’t do that then your rivals certainly will.

  3. Remember this factory was threatened with closure 18 years ago when Ford phased out the Escort and only switching Halewood to producing Jaguars saved it. It’s a huge achievement for Halewood, which was once noted for union militancy and low productivity, that now it produces a highly desirable car that people want to buy and it hasn’t lost a day to industrial action since the nineties.

        • Management & Workforce pushing in the same direction! My uncle worked at Vauxhalls in Ellesmere Port in the 70’s – the management needed to reduce overproduction so would “force” a strike by introducing trivial changes deliberately to “piss” the shop stewards off! the unions, led by donkeys, were always looking for a reason to do as little as possible for as much pay as possible. The businesses, also led by donkeys, wanted as much work as possible for minimum outlay. thankfully times have changed, give a little – take a little, I never have any problems with asking my staff to do a bit extra because we always give it back if they want an “early dart” or an emergency day off. A looked after workforce is a productive one – you take the piss, they will take the hump and “work to rule”. They take piss out of your flexibility you’ve always got the trump card – do not pass go, go directly to the job centre.

  4. Nice to see this milestone acknowledged, funnily I mentioned the half million in my post yesterday 🙂

    While the Evoque is far more expensive, spiritually it’s a successor to the funkier 3 door and Sportback versions of Freelander 1, a car always unfairly overlooked in my eyes, and overshadowed by the MGf which while more “exciting” for enthusiasts, was far less commercially significant.

  5. Here’s a way of looking at it.
    The Allegro & the Maestro were attempts to go head to head against the Ford Escort and were market share failures.
    The Rover 200 mk 2 was an attempt to sell against the Escort with a higher quality product at a 10% uplift. Did quite well but was not transformational.
    The Rover 400 mk 2/45 was an ill-conceived attempt to repeat that exercise against the Focus, which failed.
    Now: Put big wheels and high ground clearance on a medium-small hatchback, you can charge 100% uplift on a Ford Focus!
    You just have to find out what people will pay extra for, and the Evoque has hit it squarely on the head. Well done.

    • The Evoque is somewhat more than just big wheels and high ground clearance on a Focus (or Mondeo to be precise)!

  6. Referring to Glens comment above and the history of the Halewood plant–I taught secondary level in Halewood during the 60s and 70s and the plant had a dire reputation for union militancy, poor productivity etc etc. Plus the fact any of the current productions spares could be had (even an engine) with a word in the right ear, even a re spray on a Sunday when management were not about. It is hard to believe, and to their enormous credit, that the same basic plant could be producing such world beating Land Rover products. Well done them!

    • A relative of mine who worked there through the 60’s,70’s and 80’s reckoned 3 cars left the factory in bits every shift

  7. @ Aidan Fisher, I do recall watching an episode of Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Moxey mentioning how his dad used to steal parts from Halewood. It probably wasn’t such a basket case as Speke, as it did produce a much bigger selling car( the Escort), but the militancy of Liverpool factories was always a talking point in series like Till Death Us Do Part and The Liver Birds, where one episode was about a strike in a cosmetics factory. However, life has moved on and nice to see the modern Halewood making a decent car.

  8. @ Christopher Storey, they’re not that far apart, I’ve been past Halewood a couple of times on my way to Liverpool Airport in Speke. Car manufacturing was introduced onto Merseyside in the sixties as a form of economic policy as the area had above average unemployment and the docks were starting to decline. By 1970 British Leyland, Vauxhall and Ford employed 28,000 people. Currently Tata, who own the former Ford Halewood works, and Vauxhall employ 7000 workers, but are vastly more productive factories than they were and seem to have a bright future.

  9. It was not just Halewood that had this problem – Dagenham was just as bad with stuff going missing. A trailer full of Jag Engines was parked up on the Dagenham estate overnight, but by the morning not only had the engines disappeared but so had the lorry! Amazingly there was no video of the truck or the engines leaving the estate – David Copperfield?

  10. it has desirability all over it, nice interior and looks expensive. Probably very profitable for LR too. the 3d is more expensive than the 5 door. So even more profit there. Reliability is perfect still i may have a look when the time comes for me to get a new car.

    • Sorry auto correct, reliability is not perfect, far from it. Still i only need to keep a car for 2 years and Ive never had a bad car yet. Well except my MGB and my old 1300.

  11. Well that’s good news, although I notice at the end of the article mention is made of production in Brazil and China…
    I hope this will be part of a string of successes for the Halewood concern.

  12. I saw my first Evoque Convertible today. Hood up of course, with the torrential rain today!

    It was in Hampstead, so proper SUV convertible territory!

  13. It’s always easier to make a profit on a £40,000 car than a £15,000 car. But I’ve never forgiven the oiks of Gateacre (not too far away in Liverpool) for nicking my toolbox from the boot of my Ventora in about 1984. Not very bright leaving the boot unlocked, mind.

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