Indian Autos blog

I could hardly believe what I was reading. I thought this was a joke on DNA Newspaper, but as I progressed through the article, I found details and company official quotes that makes for a valid claim.

Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover are jointly developing a concept car, which if at all sees a production line, might be priced between 20 and 30 lakh rupees, reports DNA.

The vehicle is at DR0 stage, the first of the five stages in the life cycle of a new vehicle. DR5 is the stage when the product is ready for a showroom floor. DR2 is when the company decides if it has to go ahead with the project.

Tata has expressed on several occasions that it is looking to merge synergies for the benefit of both companies. This project could be the first time both teams are coming together.

The car’s platform will be developed in India. The interiors could be put together by JLR, which will ooze quality.

PM Telang, Managing Director, Tata Motors -

We are trying to combine the synergies of both the companies. We have certain strengths in understanding the requirements of emerging markets and we also have cost competency. JLR, on the other hand, has the strength in product innovation and developing new-generation vehicles.

The concept car could be a sedan since the source mentions it will not fall under the price bracket that consists of Jaguar cars. Jaguar only makes luxury sedans, don’t they? Perhaps the platform could be utilized to design vehicles of different body styles.

Tata Motors acquired JLR some time back but only today did they formally introduce the JLR brand in India at a lavish brunch event at The President.

The function was presided over by the chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Motors Mr Ratan Tata, Mr Ravi Kant Vice Chairman Tata Motors, Mr P.M.Telang MD Tata Motors, Mr David Smith CEO Jaguar Land Rover, Mr Phil Popham MD Land Rover, Mr Mike O Dricoll MD Jaguar and Mr Ravi Dube President Passenger Cars Tata Motors.

The event was attended by a large number of people, every big media company had its representative there.

It has been officially confirmed that Jaguar and Land Rover are to start selling their respective premium cars and Sports Utility Vehicles in India this year.

On Friday, Tata Motors entered into an agreement with JLR to manage the import and sales of the marques’ cars in India. As an effect, a new luxury car division has been formed in the Tata Motors Passenger Car unit, which will be headed by Rohit Suri.

After an exhaustive dealership search for four months, JLR has finalised that the first few cars will be sold at Mumbai’s Ceejay House in Worli this June. It is not known if some existing Tata dealerships would accomodate JLR cars, but it would be very strange to see premium exotic cars being sold alongside the world’s cheapest car – the Tata Nano.

The Tata Indicruz based on the Indica Vista platform will go on sale hopefully by the end of this year in India. It has been spotted testing for well over a year now. Tata has driven thousands of miles in many continents on their latest cars- both the Indica Vista and the Indicruz, to analyze and understand their cars better, much before their entry into the market. Another derivative of the Indica Vista, the Indigo sedan we are told, will arrive at dealer showrooms by the end of June 2009.

Tata motors, which recently acquired Jaguar and Land Rover, is now helping the brands to set up their dealerships in the Indian market. Tata Motors is now exploring the domestic market in India after the success of Land Rover in Chinese and Russian market.

With the slowdown in car sales across the globe, manufacturers are coming up with ways and means to sell their cars. The worst hit are gas-guzzling SUV’s ever since gas prices loomed to a record $4 per gallon in the U.S. Petrol prices have recovered in the U.S, but other countries are still feeling the heat with only marginal relief.

Land Rover and fuel efficiency have always been mutually exclusive terms. Well, not anymore. At the Paris Motor Show was unveiled the most fuel efficient land Rover ever, a bit of a surprise for a few but nevertheless. We reckon the Tata-JLR deal had something to do with this, consider it for the good.  The only hurdle the Land Rover had to face so far was its bad fuel economy.  [ Read More ]