Jaguar's Passage to India
In 2008 Tata Motors paid the Ford Motor Company $2.3 billion for UK-based automakers Land Rover and Jaguar (JLR). The deal came about as Detroit’s auto makers faced one of the worst business environments in decades. The Big Three posted losses in the billions of dollars; by2008, with the global recession and credit crunch causing a sharp decline in demand, executives from GM and Chrysler appealed to Washington for a bailout. Meanwhile industry observers called for Ford to shed some of its luxury brands.
1. Do you think Jaguar and Land Rover will prosper under the ownership of Tata Motors?
JLR said it has sold 357,773 vehicles in 2012, 30 percent up on a year earlier, and would create 800 jobs at its Solihull plant in central England to keep up with demand.
The firm, with sleek sedans favored by British prime ministers and luxury SUVs born of desert and jungle combat, now has factories working around the clock in England, bucking the trend of hard times for European automakers.
British-based managers credit their new Indian owners with providing the capital needed for JLR to expand -- especially in China -- while avoiding the sort of overseas micro-management that they say stifled the company under Ford.
2. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the Jaguar Land Rover in the next few years?
JLR has yet to release a model designed under Tata's ownership. It still buys many of its engines from Ford. CEO Ralf Speth says that is set to change. JLR now aims to invest 1.5 billion pounds (1.8 billion Euros) a year until 2017 in new products and in expanding its engine range.
It plans to unveil eight new vehicles in 2013, including a convertible sports car and a new hybrid Range Rover. A new plant near Wolverhampton in England's midlands, built at a cost of 355 million pounds, will design, engineer and manufacture its new family of engines, creating 750 engineering and manufacturing jobs.
3. Tata Motors recently introduced the Nano, the world’s
1. Do you think Jaguar and Land Rover will prosper under the ownership of Tata Motors?
JLR said it has sold 357,773 vehicles in 2012, 30 percent up on a year earlier, and would create 800 jobs at its Solihull plant in central England to keep up with demand.
The firm, with sleek sedans favored by British prime ministers and luxury SUVs born of desert and jungle combat, now has factories working around the clock in England, bucking the trend of hard times for European automakers.
British-based managers credit their new Indian owners with providing the capital needed for JLR to expand -- especially in China -- while avoiding the sort of overseas micro-management that they say stifled the company under Ford.
2. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the Jaguar Land Rover in the next few years?
JLR has yet to release a model designed under Tata's ownership. It still buys many of its engines from Ford. CEO Ralf Speth says that is set to change. JLR now aims to invest 1.5 billion pounds (1.8 billion Euros) a year until 2017 in new products and in expanding its engine range.
It plans to unveil eight new vehicles in 2013, including a convertible sports car and a new hybrid Range Rover. A new plant near Wolverhampton in England's midlands, built at a cost of 355 million pounds, will design, engineer and manufacture its new family of engines, creating 750 engineering and manufacturing jobs.
3. Tata Motors recently introduced the Nano, the world’s