Category: Land Rover

British union confident over Jaguar after Tata talks
Last week, Petrol-Head reported that British unions were meeting Tata executives while a rumour about the sale of Jaguar by the Indian group was spreading in the news. It appears that the meeting went rather well as union confirmed their support to Tata.
"We are confident our members’ long term future is best served by Tata," said Dave Osborne, national secretary for vehicle building at the Unite union. "They totally ruled out offloading Jaguar or building Land Rovers in India." "There’s a couple of clarifications we still need from Ford, but I don’t see any issues arising from that," he added.
He also said Tata had given assurances that engines would still be taken from Ford and that UK manufacturing would be maintained. Jaguar has about 10,000 employees at sites in Coventry, Birmingham, and Liverpool, while Land Rover employs about 9,000 in the West Midlands and Warwickshire. Unite is the main union representing workers at Land Rover and Jaguar, and has about 12,000 members there.
February 25, 2008
Tata and British union meet thsi week after rumours about a Jaguar sale emerges

Tata executives will meet with officials of the British union representing Ford to talk on the bid over Jaguar and Land Rover. The discussion might be hot as an insider told InsideLine the Indian carmaker plans to sell off the Jaguar brand as soon as it acquires it from Ford.
The British union had given its support to Tata in last November as the carmaker promised to keep all the jobs in the UK. But in three months a lot has changed. “We haven’t really met Tata yet since the presentation last year, so this will be a very important meeting,” Eddie Barrett of Unite told media. Barrett said there are 7,000 jobs at stake in the two companies and that “there is no reason to believe any of it is going to be affected.”
On the other hand, Land Rover has all support form Tata, but once again the future might shadowed for British workers. InsideLine reports that company head Ratan Tata has bought a 450-acre plot of land outside New Delhi where he plans to build a new Land Rover factory.
None of the rumors above have been confirmed by other sources, but in last November Petrol-Head wrote about the possible transfer of the production to India.
February 20, 2008
Land Rover to refresh the Range Rover Sport

A revamped Range Rover Sport has been spotted during testing. The refresh will likely appear with the launch of the new V8 engine.
The news comes as a surprise. However, the British star will slightly change. The spotted vehicle was sporting a new grille similar to the Freelander’s.
The minor facelift will likely be launched at the same time as the new V8 engine. With a displacement of 5.0-litre, the new V8 will be offer either 350bhp or 460bhp.
Click here to see all the pictures
Source: Autoblog
February 18, 2008
Land Rover to unveil a new V8

Land Rover will unveil a new more powerful V8 petrol engine in the next months. Both normally-aspirated and turbocharged engines will be available.
With this new V8 , engineers focused on efficiency: more power but also less polluting and less gas guzzler. The engine will have a displacement of 5.0-litre and will be available in two versions. The entry level will be a normally aspirated unit with an output of 350bhp. The turbocharged engine will have an output of 460bhp.
The new engine will feature a direct-injection system and will also be offered on Jaguar models.
Source: Car Magazine
February 11, 2008
Tata to pay £1.25bn for Jaguar and Land Rover

According to Economic Times of India, a deal will be concluded within two weeks and Tata Motors may pay £1.25 billion for the two British brands.
The final price will depend on agreements on engine supply, component sourcing, financing and other support services for which Jaguar and Land Rover would have to continue depending on Ford.
“The Tatas are in talks with Ford on other factors like the total pension liability. In case the company is able to strike a long term deal for engine supply, the pricing could go up,” said a senior consultant source.
Ford is getting upset by Fiat keen interest in sharing technology between Jaguar and Alfa Romeo and an insider said Ford is “unlikely to conclude any agreement not in its interest and that would not necessarily include a third party”.
Fiat then said it has “not had discussions … with Tata regarding this potential transaction or its participation in it.” On Monday, Tata Motors issued a statement clarifying that it “has had no discussions with Fiat on deployment of technologies developed by Jaguar and Land Rover”, the Economic Times said.
February 9, 2008
Tata to lead the Jaguar and Land rover bid

It wasn’t a real secret but Ford has confirmed that Tata was leading the bid over the Jaguar and Land Rover sale. Lewis Booth, executive vice president – Ford of Europe and PAG, has declared that “Ford is committed to focused negotiations at a more detailed level with Tata Motors concerning the potential sale of the combined Jaguar Land Rover business.”
Until now three potential buyers were in the race to buy the two carmakers. One was the Mahindra & Mahindra car maker and the other bidder was OneEquity. This is a good news for Tata but there is still a large amount of work before both parties sign an agreement. Lewis Booth said that “there is still a considerable amount of work to do, and while no final decision has been made, we will proceed with further substantive discussions with Tata Motors over the forthcoming weeks with a view to securing an agreement that is in the best interests of all parties concerned.“
January 7, 2008
More powerful Range Rover Sport on the horizon
A new Range Rover Sport version has been spotted by spy photographers during testing. According to Car magazine, the engineers were testing a new topping engine 5.0-litre V8 petrol engine.
Secrecy surrounds the exact spec of the engine but the new bigger engine will likely has an output of 450bhp as the current supercharged 4.2-litre V8 delivers 400bhp. It might also be more powerful. Indeed, the ML 63 AMG has an output of 503 bhp while BMW is rumoured to develop a sportier X5 whose current power culminates at 350bhp.
With such a new top of the range engine, Land Rover is trying to meet a demand and follow the German’s power frenzy. Unfortunately, it also becomes harder to comply with the stricter emission regulations. The LRX will likely not be enough of Land Rover continues unveiling bigger engines for its top models.
December 24, 2007
Tata to pay £1.05 billion for Jaguar and Land Rover

According to PTI, Indian news agency, Tata has offered $2.05 billion/ £1,02 billion to Ford for both British brands while Mahinda & Mahindar has offered a smaller amount of $1.9 billion/££950 million. There is no mention of the third bidder OneEquity, but it is rumoured that Ford prefers an automotive company to take over the iconic British brands.
An announcement should be made within two weeks with probably more details and 2008 should bring Tata’s plans over the future of the two brands and link with Ford. It is unknown whether Ford will keep an interest in both companies or not as it did with Aston Martin.
December 20, 2007
Tata to become Jaguar and Land Rover new owner

According to the Sunday Times, Ford will announce in a few days that Tata won the Jaguar and Land Rover bid. This wouldn’t come as a surprise. Indeed, Tata was the favourite amongst unions and the company will likely be advised by Fiat on how to manage its new European brands. Tata also said it will keep the three factories.
So, everything appears to be fine for Tata, but some Jaguar executive are concerned by the consequences over the brand image of an Indian cheap car maker buying a prestigious brand. In an interview, Ken Gorin, chairman of the Jaguar Business Operations Council, which represents Jaguar car dealers in the U.S., has said that Ford should sell the two brands to another bidder, One Equity Partners, a private equity arm of J.P.Morgan Chase (JPM). He’s reportedly concerned that the American public won’t accept a luxury-car brand such as Jaguar “out of India.”
While the US are the largest markets for both brand, it might become a problem, but after all Ford is used to building crap cars there for years, so how would it be worse with Tata as owner?
December 18, 2007
Official pictures of the Land Rover concept car

Land Rover has released the official pictures of the LRX concept car which will be showed at Detroit. It’s a styling exercise that previews the future baby Land.

If the concept car is close the production model, the small Land Rover model will still be as big as a Ford Focus. At 4350 mm long and 1550 mm high, it’s 150 mm shorter and 190 mm lower than the Freelander 2 on which the LRX is based. Thanks to the Freelander 2 platform, it should offer decent on-road abilities without guarantying good mud-manners. Indeed, while the Freelander 2 has a ground clearance of 210 mm, the LRX is 80 mm lower despite sitting on 20” wheels.

The exterior styling is easily distinguishable from the masses thanks to the front fascia that sports the corporate DNA. The LRX features two long doors which give access to an interior roomy enough to welcome four persons. Like all latest concept cars, it comes with a glass roof and one does expect to see a similar equipment on the production version.

Company sources say that the production model might arrive in 2009 if the executives give the green light in the coming weeks.
December 14, 2007