Jaguar and Land Rover India PHOTO GALLERY

Tata Motors bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford in 2008, it had great plans for both brands. Driven by sales of the sub-$5,000 Nano, the Indian conglomerate would have enough funds to secure their future. Now it seems that the tables have turned, and it's the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) unit that may have to bring in the profits.

Tata Motors reported an 8.5% drop in sales in India for the first quarter of 2011, due to rising interest rates in a country where, according to Bloomberg, 80% of new car sales are based on loans.

Demand for the Nano dropped by a whopping 48% in the last two months alone. Jaguar's global sales dropped even more in the first quarter, as the luxury carmaker reported a 27% decrease.

“Tata Motors had a pretty flat quarter as far as Jaguar sales are concerned, and Indian passenger vehicles sales went down” said Juergen Maier, a manager at Raiffeisen Capital Management in Vienna.

“Everyone is looking at the Evoque and also the product launches from Jaguar that will help increase sales”. Ashvin Chotai, the managing director of Intelligence Automotive Asia, agrees: “The company now revolves around the JLR unit and not the other way around”.

Fortunately for Tata, Land Rover is doing quite well: its sales in the past quarter grew by 22% to 50,747 units. And the Range Rover Evoque has already 18,000 orders even before it officially goes on sale in September, something that according to the brand’s director, John Edwards, will create a waiting list “well into next year” for new buyers.

Tata also has in the pipeline several Jaguar products including a Sport Break version of the XF and the exotic 200 mph C-X75 hybrid supercar. More importantly, Jaguar will launch a small sedan to rival luxury models like BMW’s 3-Series (hopefully with better results than the X-type).

In order to achieve its goals, the Tata Group plans to invest $2.4 billion annually in the development of 40 new products and variations of Jaguar and Land Rover models in the next five years.

Story source: Bloomberg

PHOTO GALLERY

Tata Nano

The Tata Nano is an inexpensive, rear-engined, four-passenger city car built by the Indian company Tata Motors and is aimed primarily at the Indian domestic market.

Tata Motors began selling its "one-lakh car" in March, 2009. The cheapest car in the world today,though the price continues to rise due to increasing material costs, it is an exemplary example of Gandhian engineering, a concept involving deep frugality and a willingness to challenge conventional wisdom

Tata working on 40kmpl diesel Nano

The dream child of Ratan Tata, envisioned to shift masses away from bikes and upgrade to cars, hasn’t yet ‘clicked’ the way all of us expected. People are still buying bikes and they are buying them in plenty.

Obviously, the Tatas aren’t giving up so early. They are planning to complete with the two-wheelers on a critical factor that influences an Indian consumer the most, whether it is 4-wheeler, two-wheeler or one-wheeler – Mileage!

A report from IndianCarsBikes suggests that the Nano Diesel is expected to deliver 40kmpl. For our international audience that’s 94 mpg! ICB adds that the Nano will not have a CRDI engine but will instead rely on the Tata ACE’s IDI engine.



We are not very sure of this ICB report as all along we have been hearing of a 2-cylinder CRDI engine being developed for the Nano. The company has also confirmed this development recently, giving ICB another credibility point.

Tata Motors to NDTV Profit in September 2010 -

We are developing a two-cylinder diesel engine for the Tata Nano. We will give ourselves the time that is required to develop and refine the engine to our satisfaction. It is premature to speak on the details.

The ACE is powered by 4-stroke, 2-cylinder, 700 cc engine which is only BS III compliant. The engine block is the Indica’s engine cut in half.

Clearly, this engine will be tweaked to make it BS IV complaint as Tata doesn’t want to miss out the congested areas in India where bike riding is a harrowing experience. As a result, we really cannot comment on the performance of the Nano diesel.

But 40 kmpl is something unbelievably fantastic.

This sort of mileage could certainly match up against a few bikes that are currently sold in India. Plus, because it’s a diesel, which right cost 40 rupees per liter, the cost of running a Nano would be below 1 rupee per kilometer.

Will this effort finally ‘click’ with masses? What are your thoughts?

Source – IndianCarsBikes

Quote Source – profit.ndtv.com

Tagged as: Nano diesel, Tata Nano, tata nano diesel

Piaggio NT3 Concept targets the TATA Nano

At this week's 2010 Milan Motorcycle Show (EICMA), Piaggio presented the NT3 Concept, a three-seater four-wheel mini that could become the TATA Nano's biggest competitor in emerging markets like India or Vietnam.
Despite its small size (it only measures 2.4 meters in length), the NT3 is a highly versatile vehicle, with multiple cabin configurations, also made possible by the center driving position. It uses a spaceframe architecture with crashbox, meaning that it's safer than it looks. Power comes from internal combustion engines or a hybrid powertrain.
The smallest one has a capacity of 200 cc and it was created with economy in mind. It is followed by a more powerful 300 cc variant and a hybrid, which combines the more potent conventional engine with an electric motor.
The two can work together and propel the NT3 to a top speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). In "electric only mode" the car's top speed is 30 km/h or 19 mph.
Piaggio says that the NT3 can do more than 30 km with 1 liter of fuel – 3.33 lt/100 km or 71 US mpg –, though it's not known with which engine. In any case, the Italian manufacturer promises low operating costs and emissions.
The Italian maker, best known for its Vespa scooters, said the NT3 could enter the market in the next three years, but hasn't made any final decisions yet.

By Csaba Daradics

Piaggio NT3 Concept targets the TATA Nano

At this week's 2010 Milan Motorcycle Show (EICMA), Piaggio presented the NT3 Concept, a three-seater four-wheel mini that could become the TATA Nano's biggest competitor in emerging markets like India or Vietnam.
Despite its small size (it only measures 2.4 meters in length), the NT3 is a highly versatile vehicle, with multiple cabin configurations, also made possible by the center driving position. It uses a spaceframe architecture with crashbox, meaning that it's safer than it looks. Power comes from internal combustion engines or a hybrid powertrain.
The smallest one has a capacity of 200 cc and it was created with economy in mind. It is followed by a more powerful 300 cc variant and a hybrid, which combines the more potent conventional engine with an electric motor.
The two can work together and propel the NT3 to a top speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). In "electric only mode" the car's top speed is 30 km/h or 19 mph.
Piaggio says that the NT3 can do more than 30 km with 1 liter of fuel – 3.33 lt/100 km or 71 US mpg –, though it's not known with which engine. In any case, the Italian manufacturer promises low operating costs and emissions.
The Italian maker, best known for its Vespa scooters, said the NT3 could enter the market in the next three years, but hasn't made any final decisions yet.

By Csaba Daradics