Mubasher: Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has named Renault's ousted boss, Thierry Bollore, as its next CEO, with a mission to return Britain’s largest carmaker to profit after it was hit hard by COVID-19, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Bollore assumed the chief executive position at Renault in January 2019, succeeding Carlos Ghosn, but was pushed out in October as he was always viewed a close to the French carmaker’s long-time boss.

Bollore will join JLR on 10 September, replacing Ralf Speth, whose tenure ends after more than 10 years.

“It will be my privilege to lead this fantastic company through what continues to be the most testing time of our generation,” Bollore said.

JLR was affected this year first by disruption to sales in China and then by lockdowns imposed across Europe and North America as COVID-19 continued to spread around the globe.

Bollore is taking over a business that built more than 500,000 cars in 2019/2020. The next CEO is facing a number of tasks, including how to handle the Jaguar brand, which underperforms the Land Rover marque, how quickly to electrify its lineup and a potential hit from Brexit if trade barriers are imposed.