Land Rover’s theft problems subside as stolen car numbers hit three-year low

JLR’s concerted response to its models being targeted by car crime gangs has seen thefts drop to their lowest level in more than three years, according to the firm's Chief Executive Adrian Mardell. 

“August 2024 saw the lowest amount of thefts since May 2021,” he said. ”But we will keep working intensively to counter the organised international crime gangs behind this.”

The brand has been working to improve security on its existing models, and has pushed out software updates on models up to 10 years old to address perceived security weaknesses. In June it also pledged £1m in funding to help UK police battle car thefts, as well as having set up its own insurance product earlier this year to counter issues customers were having when insuring its more expensive vehicles. 

“If we look at the historic theft rates of car crime, our car crime in the UK is very high reward and low risk,” JLR UK boss Patrick McGillycuddy told Auto Express earlier this year. “Less than half a percent of car crimes result in a charge. So we have organised crime gangs targeting the UK to steal vehicles and export them out of the country. 

“For us, due to the desirability of our product and the volume of our product that exists in the UK market, it means that we have historically seen high levels of theft around our product, our older generation product,” he continued. “And it's a really important point that our latest generation products, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Defender, have incredibly low incidents of theft.”
According to JLR, a 2018 update to its ultra-wide band technology has put a stop to thefts that used the keyless entry technology to gain access to cars.