A completely owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is gearing up to launch couple of sports cars with mileage-to-boast-of in the coming two years, according to the Chairman of Tata Motors, Ratan Tata. In the company's Annual report for the year 2011-2012, Tata reported that work on more powerful and fuel-efficient powertrains is already in progress. This move by the JLR is an attempt to lure more customers.
Tata said, “The company has undertaken its most ambitious product development programme in its history and will be launching several new sports sedans and sports cars in the next two years in order to provide dealers with a more competitive and wider product range.” He further added that there are several face-lifted versions as well as all new models of Range Rover in the row to be launched. And at the same time, there are several new robust and premium models from Land Rover with competitive price tags in pipeline for launch.
The Chairman, however, refused to share details about the new launches like how many new models will be launched or how many new vehicles will be launched under each of the two brands viz. JLR and Land Rover. In the past, the former had announced that it will be launching 40 new models in the coming 4-5 years.
Commenting on the performance of JLR, Tata said, “Jaguar Land Rover's operations have shown impressive growth in sales and profitability. Sales have increased by 37 per cent and 29 per cent respectively in value and volume over the previous year.” The car manufacturer is pondering upon the possibilities of setting up new factories in China to balance the market demand and supply for both the brands in the world's most populous nation.
For the last fiscal, the profit of the JLR stood at 1,481 million pounds after tax, which translates into over Rs. 12,900 crores against 1,036 million pounds that is Rs. 9,020 crores in FY 2011, implying an increment of 42.95 per cent. The revenue of the brand surged by 36.89 per cent to 13,512 million pounds, which is more than Rs. 1,17,800 crores as compared to 9,871 million pounds translating into over Rs. 86,020 crores in the last fiscal.
In March 2012, Jaguar Land Rover announced an investment worth 3.5 billion Yuan that is more than Rs. 2,800 crores back then. This investment was to be employed in its recent joint venture with the Chinese Chery Automobile to start the local assembly of the vehicles in China. As of now, the car maker is investing 355 million pounds in a powertrain manufacturing facility in UK. It has plans to set up a powertrain plant in India as well. Another announcement by JLR stated that for the next five years, brand will invest 1.5 billion pounds every year on product development. This is an attempt to keep pace with other international luxury car manufacturers and establish the company as one of the best premium brands.
