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The company is evaluating “possible areas” of cooperation with Jaguar Land Rover, with the engineering teams at the UK plant as well as at the India centre working in synchronisation.
One of the areas of cooperation could be sharing of platforms between Land Rover and Tata Motors for sports utility vehicles. Further, both are moving towards developing small engines for mutual use.
Timothy Leverton, head (advanced and product engineering), Tata Motors, said, “We have got a number of things we have been looking at. We are evaluating two-three possible areas. There has been a lot of exploration. We have people working in the UK with the JLR team and likewise we have got people working. So, this is something we are taking forward.”
Tata Motors utility vehicle line-up includes the Safari Storme, Safari, the Sumo range and the Aria. Future areas of collaboration also include derivatives built on a common Land Rover UV platform.
In fact, the front design of the Safari Storme, the second-generation Safari sports utility vehicle, with the swooping back, clear lens and head lamps, launched by Tata Motors last year is inspired by the Range Rover.
Sharing of new generation compact platforms will benefit Tata Motors more, as it will allow the company to break away from the older generation styles. The Aria, a premium multi-utility vehicle, shares its platform with the Safari Storme.
Failure to add new UV products when rivals were raining launches and in adapting to changing consumer tastes is why Tata Motors has suffered.
The company was a significant UV player till about a decade ago before losing the battle to Mahindra & Mahindra, now India’s largest UV maker, that has been ruling the roost with the Bolero and Scorpio.
Tata Motors is moving towards smaller four-cylinder turbo-charged or super-charged engines, which produce power greater than a naturally aspirated two-litre engine despite being lighter.
When asked about the progress on small engines in collaboration with JLR, Leverton said, “We have been working for some time and I am glad to say there has been some progress.”
JLR wants to shift from the bigger six- and eight-cylinder engines to four-cylinder engines. Apart from fuel efficiency, pressure from environmentalists to reduce emmisions is also forcing them to make this shift.
