Jure Vrhunc – Slovenian who is responsible for the transformation of Jaguar Land Rover

With Jure Vrhunc on the challenges that electrification, automation, Covid-19, supply chain disruption and shortage of raw materials bring to the automotive giant with almost 90 years of tradition. Photo: Jure Vrhunc’s Archive

During his studies in electrical engineering, Jure Vrhunc worked in the Department of Intelligent Systems at the Jožef Stefan Institute and then got a job in strategic development at Iskra Zaščite, which was later taken over by Raycap. When he and his Italian girlfriend were considering moving to Australia or New Zealand, he received an offer and they moved together to Oxford, UK in December.

“I was interested in the automotive industry, where a lot is happening at the time of electrification and automation, and I got the position of chief engineer in the field of autonomous vehicles at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). While pursuing an MBA at London Business School, I came in contact with a colleague at JLR – a transformation manager in charge of the commercial department – as part of one of my assignments. He invited me to join the team and I became the head of the commercial transformation, and after a while, I was offered a position in the central department for transformation,” explains Jure.

A traditional company in a time of rapid changes

“The automotive industry is currently going through the most dynamic period in the last 50 years. Our company has been relatively conservatively run for several decades and we have been too slow to respond to changes in the market. So in a few years, we would no longer be competitive, we have already found ourselves in a crisis. That is why we had to start a major transformation – financial, organizational, technological and cultural,” says Jure. He is currently in charge of the financial part and the so-called red tape project, in which he searches for complicated and redundant processes in the company and tries to make them more efficient, and his future project will be focused on digitalization.

According to Vrhunc, the transformation was driven by several factors. “We are a British company, but we have many suppliers in continental Europe – France, Germany and elsewhere. As we know, Britain has decided to leave the EU. If it was a hard Brexit and we had to pay extra levies on already small margins, it would drive us crazy. The period of uncertainty before the agreement was very detrimental for us.”

“We were faced with the issue of production efficiency. All of a sudden, we also got competition from directions we didn’t expect. From Tesla and Asian manufacturers to technology companies like Nvidia and Google. Then there is climate change, legislation and the shift toward electrification. It has become clear that companies that do not severely limit their emissions will not survive. We knew we had to adapt the technology,” he explains.

Between Covid-19 and the chip crisis

Due to the pandemic, JLR also switched to hybrid work. “How often we come to work depends on our judgment and agreement with superiors. I’ve been working from home for about half a week now. Because there are fewer people in the offices, we were able to rent out or close some locations. This has brought us lower costs and an additional source of revenue.”

At the same time, like other motorists, they were struck by a lack of semiconductors. “We were going through hard times and all of a sudden we couldn’t finish our vehicles anymore. In normal times, these vehicles would be sold and get the necessary funds for investment, but now they are much more difficult because a significant part of the supply chain collapsed during the covid. Then there is the lack of chips, a problem that we expect to continue for some time to come. We currently have a lot of orders that are simply waiting.”

Electrification as a marketing challenge

The technology for electric vehicles is available, they can make almost any car, the interlocutor claims. “The bigger problem is people’s awareness and perception. In the so-called classic car industry, the technical features people were talking about were acceleration, horsepower, and final speed. The car is also a status symbol. But at some point, environmental awareness will become the norm, to have a V12 petrol engine or a large battery, and if there is no need for that, it is unwise,” he is convinced.

“With electric motors, it is clear to everyone that there is enough torque and acceleration, now we are talking about range. Of course, we can install larger batteries. But why to put a battery in a car that can cover 500 kilometres, and thus consume valuable natural resources, when in reality we only do 50 kilometres a day, and 98% of the time the car is waiting in the parking lot, “he wonders. “Here we start talking about different business models – shared mobility, different rental options – these are really marketing approaches. A simple example: for everyday use, for example, we can make a vehicle with a range of 100 kilometres, if you want to drive longer, for example on vacation, you can book a model with a range of 500 kilometres via the application. There are many different options, depending mainly on the wishes of customers. In the past, when we only sold cars in luxury showrooms, we didn’t pay as much attention to it. But now we are doing a lot of market research and we are paying a lot of attention to such issues. ”

Vrhunc also mentions the challenges of changing interior materials. “Many prestigious cars today have leather interiors. For someone accustomed to leather, it’s hard to convince them to keep up with the times if they opt for seats made from recycled ocean plastic. That will be the process.”

»Autonomy will change the design of cars«

A new step for motorists will be vehicle autonomy. The performance of cars and the feelings while driving will become less important, there will be more emphasis on passenger comfort and opportunities for work or entertainment during the trip, the interlocutor points out. “This will change the design of cars, and much of our development is already dedicated to the humanities – we are trying to understand what suits a person from the point of view of physiognomy and what does not.”

What challenges does it face in the future? “I think the perception of mobility will change – how people relate to brands and how they buy cars. Here I see a big shift in the direction of online and mobile shopping, which is already prevalent in our cars in China, “says Vrhunc. “In my opinion, car ownership will also be less and less important, which will affect the business models of car manufacturers.”

Regarding possible crises in the coming years, he mentions the growing demand for raw materials, especially for the manufacture and recycling of batteries, and energy. “It is also a question of electricity production – if cars are charged with electricity from thermal power plants, we will only move the problem away from our local environment. We need to think on a global scale,” Jure adds.

Source: Finance, by Anja Zaletel. The complete article in Slovene is available here.