Tata Motors plans to develop new JLR engines in-house

Carl-Peter Forster, chief executive Tata Motors said that the Indian engineers will be working in designing the new Jaguar Land Rover engines. This will be a long-term threat to Ford Motor Co which is presently under contract to supply JLR engines.

In 2008, Tata Motors had bought JLR from Ford for $2.3 billion. According to the transaction, Tata Motors was supposed to buy vehicle components and technology from Ford. Forster quoted that those contracts will start expiring around 2015 and that he intends to renew those contracts but would now like to engineer new JLR engines in-house. There will be a combination of expertise of the group's engineers in India and the UK.

Ford motors however did not comment on this matter. Deepesh Rathore, chief auto analyst at IHS Global Insight in New Delhi, said that image is very important in this matter. He also said that the cars cannot keep on running with Ford engines. There have to be one’s own engine. Rathore also commented that it is definitely a loss if seen from business point of view but the company has always been prepared for this.

Forster clarified that the Indian engineers will be assisting in the redesigning of the Defender jeep, which is something of a British icon. He further added that they are determined to come up with a modern-day Defender. Their team in India has an expertise with off-road and 4x4 vehicles for developing markets, said Forster.

According to Forster, Tata Motors' Indian expertise in engineering small engines could prove especially helpful. Global demand for small engines is also likely to grow as small engines become more powerful and fuel efficiency becomes more important, added Forster. Tata Motors is planning to assemble Land Rover Freelander next year for domestic sales in India.

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