New Jaguar Land Rover models will revive Tata Motors’ luxury car segment

Tata Motors was under huge financial pressure when it bought British car brand Jaguar Land Rover from Ford Motor Company. The acquisition was followed by the worst economic recession in the history of the world which brought down car sales around the world and India. Now, the car market is recovering but the sales did not go up much. Tata Motors is hopeful that the new car brands from Jaguar Land Rover will rejuvenate its luxury car business. Due to economic recession, the demand of luxury car has fallen significantly in the international market.

On July 9, 2009, Jaguar is going to unveil its new supermini XJ Sedan. The car will be available in V6 diesel variant and 510hp V8 engine variant. Analysts are hoping for good demands for luxury cars but there will be less car from Jaguar as it is a luxury brand. The official launch of the XJ Sedan will take place in London and delivery will start from 2010. Booking will start immediately after the car. The Jaguar XJ Sedan is similar to Mercedes Benz S Class, BMW 7 Series and Lexus LS. In January 2009, Jaguar launched the upgraded versions of the XF and XK sedans, the XFR and XKR.

The Land Rover brand is also developing a new model based on “the LRX concept vehicle platform.” In addition, upgrades of Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Discover 4 were launched in April 2009.

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Can Tata Motors handle Jaguar and Land Rover?

There is perhaps nothing shocking that Tata Motors posted some loss in revenue for the last financial year. $520 million is a huge amount of money to lose. However, it is the time of economic recession and some other companies have posted much bigger loss. A good part of the loss came for Jaguar and Land Rover. It is also natural as because of economic recession, most people are not that much interested to buy expensive cars in rich countries. It is a same story in all the rich countries for all the auto makers.

Economic Times wrote:

Jaguar and Land Rover posted a loss of Rs 1,777 crore for the year. The deepening recession in the US and UK worsened the demand for luxury vehicles, forcing Tata Motors to cut jobs and consider plant closures. JLR has already shed 2,000 jobs and Tata Motors senior executives warned on Friday that more will be needed.

We will have to wait until the end of the recession to realize whether Tata Motors can handle expensive brands like Jaguar and Land Rover. These days, the company is getting a lot of attention from the media and the consumers because of its Nano- the cheapest car in the world.