(Yicai Global) Oct. 14 -- UK carmaker Jaguar Land Rover wants to increase its stake in its joint venture with China’s Chery Automotive, in which each party now has an equal 50 percent stake, so as to take control, but the Chinese partner has yet to agree, The Paper reported yesterday.

There are fierce discussions taking place at Chery Jaguar Land Rover Automotive, the report said, citing an employee at the JV. Should the shareholding ratio change, there could be major upheaval at the JV as strategies, operations, staff ratios and project resources will all change.

Jaguar Land Rover will benefit from more say in the JV because it can obtain more resources and its future performance is likely to improve greatly, one staff member said.

There is a lot of uncertainty for the staff at the JV, another employee said.

However, Wuhu, eastern Anhui province-based Chery said it knows nothing about such discussions and Jaguar Land Rover has said it does not have any such information.

The JV, which was set up 10 years ago and was China’s first JV between Chinese and UK carmakers, has not been performing well in recent years. Sales have fallen to under 60,000 units a year since 2019, from a peak of 84,000 autos in 2017.

In the first three quarters, the JV shifted 37,000 units, slumping 17.8 percent from the same period last year, according to data from Jaguar Land Rover. In the third quarter, sales improved slightly, gaining 4.7 percent year on year to 15,000 vehicles.

Poor sales have to do with the lack of new models, some dealers said. “There is no plan to bring out new models, and the old cars are not selling well at all,” they said.

With such low sales and low profits, Jaguar Land Rover is not willing to continue to invest, an employee said. However, should the Coventry-based company bring in its own brand of cars, they will sell well.

Editor: Kim Taylor