While a lot of the media's attention towards the impending sale of Jaguar and Land Rover has been focused on the former and not the latter, it came as a surprise to hear that Tata might unload Jag soon after the deal goes down.
According to sources speaking with InsideLine, Tata purchased a 450-acre swath of land in Gurgaon, outside of New Delhi, for the explicit purpose of building Land Rovers. That's going to be a tough pill to swallow for LR's labor unions, which supported the sale of the both companies last year after Tata became the top bidder.
The source went on to say that "... Jaguar will be spun off almost immediately." To whom remains a question, but one of the other automaker's vying for a piece of the British meat pie could soon be in the race again.
As we've reported previously, Jaguar isn't waiting around to see how its future unfolds to move ahead with new product development. We've seen spy shots of the next flagship XJ sedan, and heard rumors of a new sportscar to rival the Porsche 911. Emerging reports now suggest that Jaguar executives have begun coordinating with their bosses-to-be at Tata over several intriguing new models.
Although Tata is not in a position to sign off on the development of new models at this point, it reportedly received the sportscar project with the most enthusiasm. While executives reportedly favor basing the Porsche rival off the XF's steel chassis, Coventry engineers are pushing to modify the XJ's aluminum platform; the engine bay would be able to accommodate both V6 and V8 engines. Jaguar also presented its hosts with plans to lop off two doors and a couple of inches of roofline from the new XF sedan to make a coupe version, although a convertible variant was ruled out. Lastly, and perhaps most dramatically, a plan was presented to lengthen the XK coupe and add two more doors to build its own rival for former corporate cousin Aston Martin's upcoming Rapide. This last development contradicts earlier reports that suggested the next XJ sedan would adopt the four-door-coupe approach, offering instead that the new XJ would include more interior space than the model it replaces.
