Future Tata-JLR products could benefit from ‘Joint engine development program’

Land Rover Freelander2

Its been more than two years since Tata Motors bought British automakers Jaguar-Land Rover. The Jaguar and Land Rover brands were previously owned by Ford. Ford still supplies engines for Jaguar and Land Rover cars. Now, this could change and Tata Motors and its two British subsidiaries are planning a joint engine development program that would benefit both the brands. The goal is “to optimize the synergetic strengths between JLR and Tata Motors in India,” said Chairman Ratan Tata.

Tata Motors products back home in India will be one of the biggest gainers as we could see new, cleaner and more powerful engines going in to Tata cars of the future. The new joint development of engines will also help bring down input costs which in turn will result in more affordable cars. Bringing down the prices of Jaguar and Land Rover cars in India will be on top of the agenda for now as most of the cars they offer in India come as CBUs which attracts higher import duty.

2012 Jaguar XF sedan

The plan has already been initialized with Land Rover starting to assemble the Freelander SUV at a unit near Pune. We could see more Jaguar and Land Rover models being assembled at this plant in the future. Tata also plans to setup a plant at Wolverhampton, U.K. The company also plans to setup assembly units in China as well. Tata-JLR is also revealed that they are focusing on increasing Jaguar Land Rover’s presence in growth markets such as Russia and Brazil, along with launching new products and variants.

“The company is also considering various options for assembly and localization of selected [JLR] products in China, which has become an important market for the company,” Mr. Tata said.

Via WSJ

Share and Enjoy: