Tata Motors is planning to develop new engines for Jaguar and Land Rover models, said Tata Motors chief executive Carl-Peter Forster. This comes as a long term threat to Ford Motor Company which is under contract to supply the JLR engines. According to Forster, Tata Motors’ contracts with Ford are about to expire in 2015 2018/2019 and the company may renew them as the case may be. However, he would also like to combine synergies of Tata Motors and JLR engineers in India and the UK. He also said that it will definitely a loss for Ford Motors in terms of business but this is something that Ford would have always been prepared for.
Volumes for Jaguar and Land Rover have been upswing since past few months after tough preceding years. "Downturn was rapid, but the recovery has been much faster and it has taken a lot of suppliers by surprise. We are facing constraints on the engine front, on the casting front and we are working with our suppliers to supply more components."
JLR has witnessed 30 percent growth in volumes since the beginning of 2010 and due to quick turnaround of British and American markets, the plants have been running on full-capacity. The company is set on capitalising its potential in emerging markets like India and China.
Update: Tata Motors will continue to source engines from Ford, while at the same time exploring possibilies to build smaller engines in-house. '[A]s far as Tata Motors is concerned, there is ‘no threat’, to this relationship.', as per spokesman of Tata Motors.
