Report says India’s Tata is looking for partners for its Jaguar Land Rover brand.
Jaguar Land Rover parent company Tata has apparently approached other automakers such as Geely and BMW in search of potential partners for its British brand. The report first reported by Bloomberg comes from sources with knowledge of the situation.
By automotive standards, Jaguar Land Rover is a small automaker and Tata may be looking to widen its scale and save on production as well as R&D costs. Further electric vehicle development would be one of the objectives of an eventual partnership.
Both BMW and Tata refused to comment on the report while Geely stated that no talks were underway with Tata or JLR.
BMW and JLR announced a collaboration back in June aimed at developing a next generation of electric vehicles. BMW did not however invest in Jaguar Land Rover at the time. JLR is currently struggling to make ends meet and wrote off nearly $4.0 billion in 2019. A global vehicle sales slowdown could further hurt JLR.
Jaguar Land Rover is hoping to offer electrified versions of each of its models in 2020. So far, costs have hindered progress towards that goal. Jaguar currently offers a fully electric I-Pace crossover while several Land Rover and Range Rover models are available with a plug-in hybrid powertrain.
Numerous mergers and partnerships have formed in the automotive industry in recent months. France’s PSA announced a new merger with FCA last month while Volkswagen AG announced a new partnership with Ford to develop electric and autonomous vehicle technology back in January.
Tata purchased Jaguar Land Rover from Ford in 2008. For now, the company says it has no plans to sell JLR.
