Jaguar's Adrian Mardell steps down: a Maga mauling

During his 35 years at Jaguar Land Rover – including the last three as CEO – Adrian Mardell has been "largely successful", said Jordan Valinsky on CNN.

In January, JLR reported its "ninth consecutive profitable quarter"; in May, it celebrated its strongest annual profits in a decade. But this aspect of his legacy may be forever overshadowed by the PR disaster of Jaguar's "refreshed brand identity".

Mardell, who has announced his retirement, will be remembered as the CEO who ditched the British marque's famous "growler" logo and, to promote its shift to electric vehicles, launched an "avant-garde commercial" featuring "gender-fluid models, but zero images of its cars".

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And if anyone has forgotten this debacle, President Trump is on hand to remind them. This week, he trashed the carmaker for its "stupid and seriously WOKE" campaign. "Who wants to buy a Jaguar after looking at that disgraceful ad?"

In the wake of the divisive "Project Roar" rebrand, JLR's parent company, the Indian multinational Tata Motors, is taking no chances with Mardell's successor, said Kana Inagaki in the Financial Times.

For the first time since it bought JLR in 2008, Tata has tapped one of its own executives – finance chief, P.B. Balaji – to take the JLR wheel "in a move that increases the Indian owner's influence over the UK luxury-car maker".