Jaguar Land Rover drops plans to close a UK plant

Ford Motor Co. sold to India's Tata Motors in 2008, said it would be significantly increasing the number of models in its range and creating thousands of jobs over the next decade.

Last year, Tata said it would merge two JLR plants in England as part of a business plan to tackle the impact of the economic downturn on demand for vehicles, which had seen its manufacturing running at less than 60 percent of capacity.

Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth said on Friday the company is now seeing a "great turnaround" in its business.

The carmaker will keep a Jaguar plant at Castle Bromwich and a Land Rover factory in nearby Solihull, both in central England, as well as its Halewood facility near Liverpool in northwest England.

Speth said the company had already begun hiring 1,500 new employees at its Halewood factory to help with production of the Range Rover Evoque, a new small SUV that launches next summer.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101015/COPY01/310159961/1193#ixzz13gKGT4Op

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First look video: 2011 Jaguar XJ

We drive over 100 new cars each year here at the track. Most of them are perfectly pleasant. Some are downright nice, while a handful get banished to the outer edges of the parking lot once the test miles are done. But not that many cars are exactly what I’d call special.

Jaguar’s luxury flagship sedan, the XJ, qualifies as special. You might argue that any car with a sticker price of $81,575 should be special, but that isn’t always the case.

What makes the big cat stand out? Previous XJs had traditional styling; you couldn’t tell if the car was brand new or 15 years old. This time Jaguar broke from the past with an eye-catching sleek new design. It inspires some controversy, especially in back, but it also gets attention.

The bespoke cabin has more universal appeal. It’s simply a cut above what you find in mass-produced cars, even luxury liners like the Lexus LS and Mercedes S-class. The suede headliner is lovely, leather covers the dash, and there are even fold-down tray tables on the front seatbacks.

Read More: http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2010/10/first-look-video-2011-jaguar-xj.html

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Tata Brings In a German A-Team to Make Sense of Jaguar/Land Rover

A flurry of snickers went through the crowd of assembled journalists at the Paris auto show when the new CEO of Jaguar/Land Rover took the stage. Instead of the dulcet lilt of an English brogue, the new boss of some of Blighty’s oldest and most revered brands, Dr. Ralf Speth, chiseled through his speech with the oompah-oompah beat of a thick Bavarian accent.

Since January 2010, an executive shuffle at the top of the newly combined Jaguar and Land Rover operations has put German executives firmly in charge. Welcome to the globalized auto industry, which doesn’t let a little bit of historical irony get in its way.

Take, for example, the 2008 purchase of both Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford by an industrial conglomerate headquartered in one of England’s former colonies. Everybody who has met Ratan Tata, chairman of the Mumbai, India–based Tata Group, says he’s very polite, intelligent, and down-to-earth considering he’s a billionaire many times over.

Read More: http://blog.caranddriver.com/tata-brings-in-a-german-a-team-to-make-sense-of-jaguarland-rover/

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Jaguar considers production for the C-X75

Jaguar is planning production feasibility studies of up to 2,000 cars a year for its new 780-hp supercar, sources say.

Jag is remaining coy about firm production plans for the elegant mid-engine C-X75, but AutoWeek sources say that two levels of production are under consideration.

AutoWeek is an affiliate of Automotive News.

The higher one is up to 2,000 cars a year, the lower one up to 1,000 cars a year. Each needs to be explored independently because each demands different production methods -- the lower number with more hand assembly and lower tooling costs; the higher one with more automation but higher tooling costs.

A production version faithful to the gas-turbine powered C-X75 will also have to wait between five years and seven years while Jaguar proves the Bladon Jets micro gas turbines at the heart of the hybrid-electric powertrain.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101008/OEM04/101009876/1283#ixzz12Lux0PzJ

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