JLR Reportedly Ditches Chief Responsible For Controversial Rebrand

Good morning! It’s Wednesday, December 3, 2025, and this is The Morning Shift: Your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, all in one place. This is where you’ll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In today’s edition; Jaguar reportedly cuts loose the creative chief responsible for controversial concepts, Trump thinks ditching fuel economy standards years in the making will make cars cheaper today, gas prices are at an average $2.99 in the U.S., and a bunch of Russian Porsches went dead due to issues in space. 

Jaguar Land Rover has had a tough year. The company went big and bold with a new divisive design language as it wound down production of old, outdated models. It seemed to have worked, as we were all talking about a car that didn’t even exist yet from a company that barely existed on the global market at all. What JLR wasn’t planning on, however, was a gnarly cyberattack eating up what little profits there were to go around. 

It took weeks for JLR to recover full manufacturing capability, and the company is now in no position to take the risk of building a car half of people hate. There’s nothing official yet, but reports are flying around the internet that Jaguar’s chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern, has been sacked by his new boss from Tata Motors, according to Autocar India:

McGovern’s sudden exit comes swiftly after PB Balaji assumed the CEO role on November 17, 2025, succeeding Mardell after a structured transition. McGovern, long regarded as a favourite of the late Ratan Tata, enjoyed strong backing during Tata’s influential tenure at Tata Group, which owns JLR; with Tata’s passing, that key support waned, leaving him more exposed to internal shifts.​

McGovern bore significant responsibility for Jaguar’s controversial rebrand under the Panthera project, which drew widespread criticism for diluting the brand’s heritage. Autocar India reported deep internal dissent, with a leaked 2022 letter from 25-30 design team members to McGovern protesting the outsourcing to Accenture Interactive, which they felt sidelined their expertise and collaborative culture.

Reports claim that not only was McGovern sacked, he was escorted from the building. Harsh. It seems JLR has forgotten all the hard work he did over his 21 years with the company, like bringing back iconic vehicles like the rebooted Land Rover Defender.

Automaker CEOs are being dragged into D.C. this week to explain why cars are so darn expensive these days. While cheap and life-saving safety features are in Republicans’ sights another, even dumber, reason for high car prices is on the table: pesky fuel economy standards. 

Lowering fuel economy standards is a painfully obvious way for President Trump to stick it to the environment-loving hippies and the previous administration while pretending to care about the affordability crisis. Real experts in the automotive market know what is causing the rise in car prices, but that won’t stop Trump from hanging a “Mission Accomplished” banner on his crumbling economy with inane half-steps like these. Automotive News puts the issue quite succinctly:

Car prices have also been rising as domestic automakers increasingly prioritize profitable high-end, feature-laden models over lower-margin, entry-level cars. As they pull back on plug-in models, what’s left for consumers are vehicles that are less efficient and more expensive.

Easing fuel economy requirements is unlikely to swiftly lower prices for consumers. Carmakers plan their lineups years in advance, meaning changes stemming from policy shifts take time to appear in showrooms. Tariffs enacted by Trump have also raised automaker costs by billions of dollars.

The move also threatens a policy that would have reduced household fuel spending and slashed planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions. The Biden administration had said the standards would cut gasoline consumption by almost 70 billion gallons through 2050 and save U.S. consumers more than $23 billion in fuel costs. That translates to about $600 in savings over an individual vehicle’s lifetime.

Trump said in March he “couldn’t care less” if his monkeying tariffs raised car prices (and they have) so forgive me for being suspicious that Republicans want to do all of this in the name of helping out the little guy. 

Well at least one thing is more affordable right now; gas is averaging about $2.99 per gallon in the U.S. We haven’t seen such prices since May of 2021, according to CNN. It seems the world if finally adjusting around the price spike in 2022, when Russia invade Ukraine and sent prices soaring. If you think you have President Trump to thank for those slightly lower prices (the average was $3.05 this time last year), think again: 

In early December 2022, months after Russia invaded Ukraine, US oil prices were sitting at about $81 a barrel. At this point last year, crude traded at around $70 a barrel. Today a barrel of crude is selling for just $59.

Oil has been driven lower by the fact that supply continues to outpace demand.

US oil production continues to break record highs, although it is only slightly higher than a year ago.

The bigger driver is the fact that OPEC has ramped up production this year, something the producer group refused to do in years past.

At least Trump has fixed all the other prices, like groceries and energy, right? Oh…Oh no. 

From the “what madness hath man wrought” desk, Russian Porsche owners reported last week that their cars suddenly would not start. It turns out a factory-installed satellite link interference caused the cars to go dead. The link is part of the Vehicle Tracking System, which allows owners to track down stolen cars. 

Cars wouldn’t start, some shut down without warning, and some even suffered fuel blockages due to the outage, the Moscow Times reports. A representative for Russia’s largest dealership group wondered if the cut-off was done deliberately, but so far there is no evidence that this was a terroristic attack on Porsche owners.

The Mirth Mobile, denied. Bummer. 

I love hanging out with my much younger sister because she is a huge music nerd and I get to learn about sick jams like this one.