XE

Make
Jaguar
Segment
Sedan

Since waving goodbye to Ford in 2008, Jaguar Land Rover has enjoyed an incredible sales turnaround. Things looked bleak when Ford sold the company to India's Tata Motors at a loss for $2.3 million, but last year Jaguar Land Rover's sales more than doubled to 583,312 units. Now, Jaguar Land Rover's CEO Ralf Speth wants to continue that success and grow annual sales to one million vehicles. It's an ambitious aim, but Automotive News has a suggestion to make that goal more feasible – Jaguar Land Rover should buy Vauxhall from PSA Group.

JLR shouldn't struggle to top last year's global sales with major new launches such as the Range Rover Velar and the next generation Land Rover Discovery, as well as the Jaguar XE compact sedan and F-Pace crossover. Automotive News speculates that adding Vauxhall to the family would be a smart business move for JLR. Whereas acquiring Opel will allow PSA to lower production costs by spreading technology, platforms and components to Opel vehicles, Vauxhall won't be much of an asset to PSA as part of its acquisition of General Motors. Opel is well established in Europe and the Middle East and is starting to make a mark in South America and Asia, but Vauxhalls are only sold in the UK.

JLR acquiring Vauxhall would be advantageous for both JLR and PSA. The PSA wouldn't have the burden of having to manufacture low-volume variations of Opels for the UK, and JLR could use Vauxhall to branch out into entry-level car segments which neither the Jaguar or Land Rover luxury brands can compete in. You know it makes sense, JLR.