News digest
Clive Goldthorp
1) Jaguar and Land Rover.
In US tour, Mr. Tata gives Jaguar and Rover dealers a hug
Lindsay Chappell, Automotive News 30th June, 2008
Who was that elegant stranger sipping tea and poking around in
the service shop of Allen Aron's Chicago area Jaguar dealership this month?
None other than the man who now owns Jaguar, Indian industrialist and billionaire
Ratan Tata. Tata, who just paid $3 billion to acquire Jaguar and Land Rover
from Ford Motor Co., wasted no time flying over to the United States to meet
some of the brand's oldest and biggest dealers.
It was his first visit to a Jaguar dealership. Anywhere. And also
the first time in memory dealers have laid eyes on their top factory decision-maker.
"I've been a Jaguar dealer for 40 years," says Norm Tompkins, owner
of San Jose British Motors near San Francisco, whom Tata invited to lunch. "In
all the years Ford owned us, I never met a single Ford executive."
Tata's cross-country dealership pilgrimage, flying with his top
executives and a male personal secretary aboard the chairman's private jet,
made a clear impression on Jaguar and Rover dealers. With a warm personality
and a patient ear, the 70-year-old Tata appears to be winning over quickly the
anxious hearts of two orphaned luxury brands.
"I was never hugged as much by my own father as I was hugged
by him," Aron admits. Aron, one of the first Jaguar dealers in the United
States, invited Tata to his 55-year-old Imperial Motors store in Wilmette, Ill.
"He embraces you and touches you, which is a good thing. To me, that's
the sign of a very warmhearted person. I'm telling you this," Aron says,
growing serious: "He's going to make something out of Jaguar. We're in
good hands now. My son can see his future here now."
Steaks and ideas
Barely two weeks after closing the deal with Ford this month, Tata
invited Aron and a few other Chicago area Jaguar and Rover dealers to dinner
at Chicago's Peninsula Hotel. Tata asked the dealers to tell him their ideas
and wishes for their brands. Over steaks, the chairman and his secretary took
notes on the comments. Dealers asked the new owner for a convertible Jaguar
sports car. They alerted Tata that Bentley, owned by Volkswagen AG, has become
a fierce new competitor for them and that Jaguar must have a higher-end car
to compete with Bentley.
Tata nodded and wrote that down. His newly named Jaguar global
CEO, David Smith, also took notes and asked questions. The next day, Tata and
his group came calling on Aron's dealership. Aron laid out a spread of fresh
fruit, decorated with small Indian flags. Aron's wife made a trip to the grocery
to buy Tetley tea to serve the group, since they learned that the Tata family
owns the Tetley brand.
As Tata strolled through the dealership, his managing director
for global automotive activity, Ravi Kant, sat down across the desk from Aron
and asked a few questions. "Can I tell you what he wanted to know?"
Aron asks in mild amazement. " 'Mr. Aron,' he said to me, 'How many technicians
do you have here? What is your profit margin on parts? What is your absorption
rate?' "Aron says, referring to the percentage of a dealership's operating
costs covered by the service department. What is your absorption rate!
Can you imagine the head of an automaker bothering to travel around the world
to sit here and talk to me about such day-to-day business details? And he wrote
down my answers!"
Moving metal
Tata Group will need more than dealer enthusiasm to restore the
fortunes of Jaguar and Land Rover. In 2002, Jaguar sold 61,204 vehicles in the
United States. Last year, it sold 15,683. Land Rover's U.S. sales have grown
in the same period: 49,550 in 2007, compared with 40,987 in 2002. But Land Rover's
sales are down 23.5 percent so far this year in the face of expensive gasoline.
Jaguar, when owned by Ford, had once hoped that its U.S. dealers
would sell up to 100,000 vehicles a year. Jaguar customers have embraced the
just-launched XF sedan. More than a few dealers have reported they are sold
out of their XF allocation for the year. A re-engineered XJ sedan is due next
year. The oft-requested convertible, an on-again/off-again proposal since 2001,
is supposedly again on the table.
Jaguar's and Land Rover's challenge is daunting because they compete
against the best global brands: Mercedes, BMW, Lexus and Infiniti. BMW, for
instance, now makes a fleet of Rover-fighting SUVs. Moreover, Tata's new luxury
auto business will not have the chairman's undivided attention. The family-owned
conglomerate operates 98 companies in seven business segments.
But Tata obviously intends to make changes. It is moving the companies'
North American headquarters out of California, where Ford placed them, to return
them to the East Coast to be closer to their British factories. According to
one of the dealers who visited with Tata, the Indian corporation indicated it
wants to involve the fabled Italian design house, Pininfarina S.p.A., in more
Jaguar designs.
Tata officials could not be reached to confirm that plan.
Nice hotel
On the West Coast, the new owners called on dealers in San Francisco.
The group was treated to lunch at the Campton Place hotel. Not coincidentally,
Campton is owned by the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces group, another of Ratan
Tata's holdings. Over lunch, the new CEO Smith told Rover dealers that shedding
vehicle weight to improve fuel economy will be a top Land Rover priority —
probably by switching from steel to aluminum components where possible.
Between bites, a Jaguar dealer asked Tata to consider a new XK-E
— the iconic British sports car of the 1960s that introduced many buyers
to the brand. According to those in the room, Tata smiled and nodded as he wrote
down the suggestion, agreeing, "That would be an interesting project."
Army abandons Land Rover
Will Powell, Autocar.co.uk 30th June, 2008
The Ministry of Defence has ordered 157 heavily armoured Ridgback
4x4s to replace ageing Land Rovers in war zones. It’s a response to the
increasing number of roadside bomb casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American-built
Ridgback trucks will be deployed in combat areas from next year. They should
afford troops greater protection from mines than the elderly Defenders currently
is use, and are said to be more manoeuvrable and reliable. Ridgbacks have significantly
more armour plating and are larger than the Land Rovers.
Weapons include heavy duty and general-purpose machine guns, grenade
launchers and some will be fitted with a remote control system, allowing soldiers
to operate the weapons from a joystick. The new Ridgbacks are just one element
of the MoD’s £150 million fleet overhaul – an investment that
critics have been calling for since war broke out in Iraq. The ‘Pitbull’
armoured personnel carrier has already been rolled out to troops in Afghanistan,
again replacing armoured Land Rovers.
Meanwhile the Ridgback’s larger Mastiff sibling continues
to phase out the Snatch Land Rover. “The Mastiffs have saved lives out
in theatre and we have ordered the Ridgback because it is a smaller version
of the Mastiff – offering our forces first rate protection with more manoeuvrability,”
commented Defence Secretary Des Brown.
Currently the new Ridgbacks are being fitted with their weapons
and communications systems. Troops will be trained to use the vehicles before
they go into combat.
2) Lotus
Lotus Eagle Teaser Picture – Official Debut at British
Motor Show
Carscoop 28th, June 2008
The first all-new model to come out of the Lotus factory in 13
years, the Eagle, will be revealed on July 22 when the British Motor Show in
London opens its doors to the members of the press. However, we managed to discover
an official teaser image of the mid-engined 2+2 sports car that is rumored to
be powered by a modified version of the Toyota Camry’s 3.5 V6 engine that
in stock form produces 268bhp at 6200 rpm and 248 lb/ft at 4700 rpm.
Inside sources told Carscoop that the Japanese V6 engine will be
offered in both naturally aspirated and turbocharged versions. The Eagle will
essentially replace the top-of-the-line Esprit that went out of production in
2004 as Lotus will market the 2+2 lightweight coupe above the Elise, Exige and
Europa. Talking about lightweight construction, the Eagle will utilize the proven
technology used in the Elise family of vehicles as well as the Versatile Vehicle
Architecture (VVA) shown as the APX (Aluminium Performance Crossover) Concept
Vehicle.
At the Geneva Salon in March, Lotus showcased the front module
of the Eagle’s chassis which consist of three distinct parts, with the
centre occupant section being the largest. Bolted to this centre section are
the rear sub frame to which the engine and rear suspension are attached and
the front module that incorporates the bumper beam and side members.
3) India Watch
Tata Motors' chairman sees challenging year
Rina Chandran, Reuters 1st July, 2008
MUMBAI, (Reuters) - India's Tata Motors expects its launch of the
Nano, the world's cheapest car, and its purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover to
offset some of the pain of a challenging 2008-09 that has knocked its shares
to their lowest in more than three years. Shares in Tata Motors, which raised
prices of its commercial vehicles by 3 percent on Tuesday, fell 4.2 percent,
taking their losses in 2008 to 45 percent, as it and other auto firms battle
high input costs, rising interest rates and slowing demand.
These factors would dent sales of commercial and passenger vehicles
in the fiscal year to March 2009, Chairman Ratan Tata said in the company's
annual report, published on its website on Tuesday. "In addition, the company
will have to manage the completion of the Singur plant (for Nano) and introduction
of the Nano," he said.
"Tata Motors will also have to absorb the cost of the JLR
acquisition, and deal with its integration," he said, referring to the
$2.3 billion purchase of the luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands that the company
completed recently. Tata said he expected strong sales of the Nano, and added
scale and profits from Jaguar and Land Rover, which he said had "tremendous
unfulfilled market potential".
Tata Motors plans to raise $1.7 billion from three rights issues
to help fund the acquisition, and is seeking a further $500-$600 million from
an overseas equity issue. Investors have been rattled by the hefty fundraising
plans, a bleak outlook for commercial vehicle sales and cost overruns on the
Nano plant to more than 20 billion rupees ($460 million) from an earlier estimate
of 17 billion rupees.
Tata Motors expects to start trial production of the Nano, which
it plans to price at around $2500, in July or August, and was making every effort
to roll out the car around October, before the start of India's festival season.
The plants for the Nano would be expanded to meet demand in domestic and international
markets, Tata said, and variants were being developed to meet new environmental
and fuel price challenges.