29 June 2009;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi: Home grown major Tata Motors launched iconic brands of Jaguar and Land Rover on Sunday. While Jaguar has become one of the world’s leading producers of beautiful fast cars, Land Rover produces the world’s most versatile all-terrain vehicles, combining refined luxury with a true breadth of capability. “It’s quite a memorable day in the history and heritage of Tata Motors...JLR has been well received and well established in India (in the past), but over the years this brand has been disconnected from India,” said Tata Group Chief Ratan Tata. “Now, we have decided to extend the penetration of the two brands in India,” Tata added. “I think the cars will exhibit the levels of technology and levels of performance here,” he said, adding the two brands would give Indian public an opportunity to experience the “pleasure of driving the superior technology. Tata Motors completed the acquisition of the two British marquee car brands last year for $2.3 billion. About the two brands’ official entry into the country, Tata said: “I think the cars will exhibit the levels of technology and levels of performance here.” The exciting new range of premium luxury vehicles available for the Indian market will include the Jaguar XF, XFR and XKR and Land Rover Discovery 3, Range Rover Sport and Range Rover. Jaguar originally manufactured sidecars that were attached to motorcycles and was called the Swallow Sidecar Company. The two brands would give Indian public an opportunity to experience the “pleasure of driving the superior technology” and now “we have decided to extend the penetration of the two brands in India,” he added. Asked about the current status of JLR asking for financial assistance from the UK Government, Tata said: “We are in discussion with the UK Government on loan guarantee. We are hopeful that we will find a solution to it. Our funding plans for JLR will progress further...” “Sustaining downturn is extremely important... I would like to see these two brands to come out of the downturn and the companies will have new vehicles and new models. “...The loan that we are talking to, would be allotted to the company by European Banks,” he added. Regarding cutting pension benefits of the JLR employees, Tata Motors Vice Chairman Ravi Kant said: “The discussion is going to start by the end of this year and will be closed by July next year.” On sharing, leveraging JLR’s strong markets, like the US, for Tata Motors’ products, the Tata group chief said the company does not have any such plans as the vehicles are in completely different segments. Tata, however, said: “We will work closely on R&D. We will share intellectual property, but we have never tried to merge the two brands with Tata Motors. Over time, the sophistication of dealing with customers and spares will start to commonalise between the two companies.” Asked if JLR would look for sourcing opportunities in India in the midst of its profits going down, JLR Chief Executive Officer David Smith said, “As a business sense, we see a whole range of countries, like India, China, North America and Europe. In the past, our team was working in exploring supply base in India, and will explore further.” The company’s focus is to reduce the input costs. “This country (India) is going to play a very important and long role for the two brands. Last year was very difficult due to global economic downturn, which affected the sales premium cars,” Land Rover’s Popham said.
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