Petrol Stop - Indian engineers to make JLR engines

Petrol Stop Home

Indian engineers to make JLR engines

Thursday, 26 August 2010

26 August 2010;economictimes.indiatimes.com:Pankaj Doval:MUMBAI: Famed Indian engineering is set to design the heart of British marque brands Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) as Tata Motors, that bought them in 2008 from Ford, looks at joint development of compact engines with JLR. PM Telang, MD of Tata Motors' India operations, told TOI that the two companies intend to jointly develop smaller engines that could be strapped on vehicles of all the three brands. He said, while the portfolio of Tata Motors was growing, JLR was facing pressure due to emission norms in Europe. "So they will have to start downsizing their engines and there will be some areas, where there will be synergy between these two companies. All this will be examined to find out if there is some interplay available for us to take joint engine development which will meet some of their requirements and some of Tata Motors' requirements. The engines for JLR are currently supplied by Ford, which the brands before Tata Motors bought them in a $2.5 billion deal. However, stricter emission norms in Europe and supply constraints has prompted Tata Motors to look at developing newer engines, especially smaller and more efficient ones. "The current range of engines that they use, which are from Ford, are fairly large engines. For passenger cars, they are upwards of 3 litres and going up to 5.5 liters," Telang said. While Telang refused to elaborate further, it is believed that Tata Motors may chip in with its knowledge in compact engines as well as low-cost development philosophy to combine with the R&D expertise of JLR. And the move to develop smaller engines comes at a time when Tata Motors is looking at assembling the Land Rover in India, to bring down the cost of the off-roaders and increase their potential in the market. "We have started retailing Jaguar and Land Rover in India and got a good response. Now we are examining the market for CKD (completely-knocked down) operations for larger volumes," Telang said.