Jlr urges government to crack down on car crime

JLR CEO Adrian Mardell has called for an “urgent national conversation” about organised vehicle crime and is urging the government to invest further to crack down on gangs, even if that comes instead of tax cuts.

Concerns about high theft rates of Range Rover cars have led to reports from owners of a sharp rise in insurance costs.

Asked about the issue during a media call for JLR’s third-quarter financial results, Mardell launched a passionate defence of the safety of his firm’s cars, saying that suggestions of high theft rates of Range Rover and Land Rover Defender cars had been exaggerated, due to misreported data.

Mardell acknowledged that organised vehicle crime is “a serious issue in this country” that is “landing heavily on all [manufacturers]”, including JLR.

He added: “Our clients are suffering from that, and most people in this country won’t like that, whether they’re suffering or not.”

Citing the latest full-year DVLA statistics on vehicle thefts (see right), Mardell said: “Contrary to a widely repeated myth, the Range Rover doesn’t feature in the UK’s top 10 stolen vehicles for calendar year 2023. It isn’t Britain’s most stolen vehicle. There are no JLR models in the top three stolen vehicles in calendar year ’23.”

Mardell noted that the DVLA data shows a 27.2% year-on-year decline in Range Rover theft and a 28.6% decline in Range Rover Sport theft.

He also cited data showing minimal thefts of the latest models: just 11 new-generation Range Rovers, representing 0.08% of all examples sold, have been stolen, said JLR, and none via keyless entry.

“I’m not sure which other brand could actually claim such a high level of security and a low level of theft,” said Mardell.

He claimed that these

figures meant “there’s no reason whatsoever why any insurance company should not gladly and readily insure those new vehicles – zero reason, in any part of this country”.

Mardell continued: “The insurance industry clearly aren’t using the information in the data, which is a consistent series of dialogues and messages we’ve had with that industry for the last six months. They’re very slow to respond to data.”

JLR’s own insurance offering – claimed to already have been in the works but accelerated t