Category: Land Rover

David Smith becomes CEO of JLR
Tata has promoted the current chief financial officer, David Smith, to the position of CEO of Jaguar and Land Rover.
David Smith was managing the new group since Geoff Polites passed away on April 20. Smith started its career by joining Ford in 1983. He worked in New and Emerging Markets and was based in Turkey before joining Land Rover in July 2000 as Director of Finance.
He played a large role in reviving reviving the Jaguar and Land Rover brands and is rumoured to had helped the American carmaker to sell the Aston Martin carmaker last year.
Its mission at Jaguar and Land Rover won’t be easy as the two carmakers will have to make the transition to more fuel efficient models. However he will be helped by the agreement signed by Ford and Tata. The two companies will cooperate on developing hybrid and powertrain technology, as well as shared, global platforms.
June 3, 2008
Tough road ahead for Tata’s Jaguar-Land Rover ride in Europe
The emission issue has the potential to become a major roadblock for Tata Motors and its two new British marques. The Indian carmaker plans to invest £700 million in new technologies.
After Ford’s exit, Jaguar and Land Rover are heading for tough times in Europe as the two companies can’t merge their average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of fleet with the smaller Ford models. Teh tow car companies will likely be heavily taxed when the stricter regulations will be applied in 2012. Tata Motors plans to invest £700 million to to develop and implement new environmental technologies and introduce new manufacturing materials.
While JLR could have offset higher CO2 emission of its fleet by balancing it by Ford’s fleet of light low-emission cars, the same is not possible under Tata Motors as it does not sell cars in Europe. Tata Motors also faces a proposed penalty, or the "excess emissions premium", that companies have to pay for going over the stipulated curve. A premium of 20 euros per gm/km has been proposed in the first year (2012), gradually rising to 35 euros in the second year (2013), 60 euros in the third year (2014) and 95 euros by 2015. Even the most fuel-efficient car sold by Jaguar, the X-Type, currently emits 149 g/km, which is well above the stipulated norms. In 2015, the X-Type would be taxed over around £1,500. The situation appears catastrophic for a Range Rover Sport. For example the Porsche Cayenne Turbo would be £8,000 over taxed in 2012.
May 31, 2008
Jaguar & Land Rover readying hybrid versions
Jaguar and Land Rover are currently working together on adapting hybrid technology on two engines: a 3.0-litre diesel unit and 5.0-litre V8 engine.
The 3.0-litre diesel engine is derived from the 2.7-litre V6 unit sold in the Discovery 3, Range Rover Sport and Jaguar XF. The diesel engine is combined with a hybrid system and will feature the stop and start technology. Despite hybrid technologies, both companies expect to boost fuel efficiency by 10 per cent. As part of the Ford/PSA Peugeot Citroen agreement, will the French group get this new engine?
The petrol engine will be an upgraded version of the current V8. With an increased displacement to 5 litres, the V8 will use the hybrid technology in an attempt to increase its green credentials. However, the main revolution will start in 2012 when both British carmakers will off full-hybrid models. If Jaguar’s approach remains unknown, Land Rover will use a rear-mounted electric engine which will power the rear wheels.
Source: Autocar
May 30, 2008
Land Rover rolls off the 100,000th Freelander 2
Land Rover has rolled off the 100,000th Freelander 2 less than two years after its launch in July 2006.
The 100,000th car is a Rimini Red 2.2 Diesel Auto which will be delivered to its Russian customer in the city of Surgut, located on Russia’s Central Siberian Plateau. For the carmaker this is good news and an important milestone for the company when future looks rather gloomy.
The Freelander 2 has won global praise from professionals and won over 10 international industry awards since launch including the What Car? Compact 4×4 of the Year Award, Top Gear ‘SUV of the Year’ and ‘Best Small 4×4’ at the Business Car awards. Without a doubt, the second-generation’s success helped Land Rover to achieve is best year ever in terms of sales last year. It is popular in emerging markets such as Russia, China and the Middle East.
Thomas Klein, Operations Director at Halewood said: "The 100,000th Freelander is an important milestone for the plant – Freelander 2 helped Land Rover achieve its best ever sales year in 2007 and has won several major awards in its first 12 months in the market place. Freelander is continuing to perform well in traditional Land Rover markets such as the UK but sales in emerging areas like Russia and China are also growing rapidly so it’s entirely fitting that this car is destined for a customer in Siberia. “
April 9, 2008
Spyshots: A V12-powered Range Rover?
This is probably pure speculation but according to spy photographers Land Rover is working on a V12-powered Range Rover.
The spotted Range Rover features a new front bumper with larger air intakes and four exhaust pipes. Both details suggest a bigger engine is under development at Land Rover, but a V12 is highly speculative. The next-generation is rumoured to move upmarket in an attempt to become the Bentley of SUVs. Rumours talk about a price tag up to £100,000.
A V12 engine would likely help to justify the hefty price. However such a big engine would also jeopardise the company’s CO2 fleet average.
Click here to see the pictures
April 8, 2008
More images of the Defender SVX
Land Rover has released more pictures of the Defender SVX, a limited edition launched to celebrate the carmaker’s 60th anniversary.
Due to be delivered to the first customers in the summer, the Defender SVX comes with metallic black paintwork and satin black graphic decals. The limited edition Defender features new, ‘diamond turned’ five-spoke alloy wheels, a reinforced aluminium front undershield and LED rear lights. On the inside, it is equipped with custom-designed Recaro front seats, distinctive alloy gear knobs, a new audio system, iPod cradle and Garmin satellite navigation.
The Defender SVX is available in both 90 soft-top and 90 station wagon versions. The soft-top models comes with a metallic silver tubular cage that supports a tailor-made, removable black fabric hood. Each SVX model for the UK will also come fitted with an individually numbered plaque, e.g. 001. A total of 200 SVX vehicles will be made available in the UK – 140 two-seat Defender 90 soft-tops and 60 four-seat 90 station wagons.

April 7, 2008
Land Rover to build the LRX
Tata has given the green light to Land Rover to produce the LRX concept car which is expected to hit the showrooms by 2011.
Without a doubt, the LRX has been one of the best concept car around since January and this is good news for the British brand. This doesn’t come as a surprise. Indeed, the carmaker had plans to launch a small SUVs in the future and recent news confirmed the carmaker was working on this all-new vehicle. However, Tata had to confirm it would support the company’s plan.
The LRX will be built at the Halewood factory which will double its production capacity to 210,000 vehicles by 2012 after investment from Tata. The small SUV concept car was powered by a 2.0-litre hybrid-diesel engine, but is unknown at this stage whether Land Rover will put the engine in production or not.
April 5, 2008
Land Rover to fit the LRX’s interior on the final model
According to some sources, Land Rover plans to keep as much of the concept car’s interior intact as it can for the future final model.
The vast majority of concept cars lose their interiors during the transition to the production version and one did expect the LRX to follow the trend. But this time, the future small Land Rover might keep its interior as close as possible to that of the concept car. The interior was highly praised by the professional and by the public pushing the company executives to work hard on keeping the interior of the concept car.
Details remain scarce at this early stage and we will have to wait until the launch of the baby Land due in 2010 to know how close the interior will be. However, the news comes as a good sign for the future of Land Rover. By taking this smart move, Land Rover understood how the potential buyers of the future model will be different from the traditional buyers of Land Rover models. Instead of promoting a traditional brand image, the production version will have to go wild and funky as it will likely compete with the BMW Mini and Fiat 500.
The Land Rover LRX debuted at Detroit in last January and was displayed under another paint scheme at Geneva this month.
March 18, 2008
Land Rover unveils the LRX Concept “Black and Silver”
The British carmaker has unveiled a new iteration of the LRX concept car seen at Detroit.
As predicted, the LRX shown at Geneva comes with a two-tone paint scheme in black and silver. The Geneva iteration features a removable carbon composite roof panel which contrasts with the silver-coloured roof, and has integral anchor points for fixing snowboards and other sports equipment. The black roof bars provide another option for roof-top loads, and a compact step above the rear bumper provides for easy roof-top access.
The LRX hasn’t been confirmed for production yet and Land Rover claims the LRX was designed to gauge public reaction to the idea of a small Land Rover models. However, some observers believe the company is currently developing a small SUV intended to reach out young buyer and decrease the fleet average CO2 emissions.
March 4, 2008
Tata to announce Jaguar and Land Rover takeover next week
Tata will announce the takeover of the two British carmakers, Jaguar and Land Rover, next week during the Geneva Motor Show.
Ford and Tata came to an agreement after the positive talks Tata executives had with British unions. Last week Tata confirmed that it won’t sell Jaguar as soon as the takeover is done and promised not to have redundancy plans at first.
The announcement will end a tumultuous bidding between Ford and the three bidders, among them, Tata and Mahindra and Mahindra, It will also mark the end of long history and tumultuous history between Ford and Jaguar.
Future will say whether Tata has enough money in the bank to develop Land Rover and give Jaguar the status it deserves.
February 27, 2008