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Jaguar Land Rover undergoes $3.2 billion turnaround plan as sales slump

MUMBAI — India's Tata Motors on Wednesday announced a turnaround plan for its luxury car unit Jaguar Land Rover, which has been hit hard by trade tensions between China and the U.S., low demand for diesel cars in Europe and worries over Brexit. Under "Project Charge," Tata Motors said it plans to cut costs and improve cash flows at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) by 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) over 18 months. JLR also plans to launch several new vehicles, including the Jaguar I-Pace and the new Range Rover Defender over the next few years and will offer a hybrid or full-electric version of all its models by 2020. "Together with our ongoing product offensive and calibrated investment plans, these efforts will lay the foundations for long-term sustainable growth," JLR CEO Ralf Speth said after Tata Motors reported a quarterly loss. JLR has trimmed its pre-tax profit expectations for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, and expects to break even, Speth said, versus an earlier target of profit growth. As part of the turnaround plan, JLR will first focus on cash-saving "quick wins" like reducing non-product investments and speeding up asset sales, Tata Motors said in an investor presentation. In the near term it will improve efficiency in areas including purchasing and material cost, manufacturing, logistics and people, and will focus on strategic and non-core asset sales. JLR has already reduced the number of production days at its UK plants in Castle Bromwich and Solihull. The company said in its presentation it has saved 300 million pounds since it initiated the turnaround plan six weeks ago and is working on 500 ideas for the future. Tata Motors reported a loss of 10.49 billion rupees ($141.9 million) for the July-September quarter, compared with a profit of 24.83 billion rupees in the year-ago period. That was worse than the estimate of a loss of 2.40 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data. JLR reported a loss of 101 million pounds during the quarter and its margin on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 130 basis points to 9.9 percent. Retail sales of its Jaguar sedans and Land Rover sport utility vehicles (SUVs) fell 13.2 percent to about 130,000 units, hurt particularly by tariff changes in China and escalating trade tensions. Demand in China remained muted even after the country cut import tariffs for cars and car parts to 15 percent for most vehicles from 25 percent from July.

Jaguar planning all-electric E-Pace crossover

Jaguar hasn't quite finished rolling out the new F-Pace (pictured above), and already reports are circulating of another crossover model to join it in the near future. According to Automobile, it'll be called the E-Pace. Here's the kicker: it'll be all-electric. The E-Pace would take advantage of ultra-efficient aerodynamics in order to drop its drag coefficient to just 0.28 g, thereby increasing efficiency. It'd also be the first fully electric model from Jaguar, and would likely be even smaller than the sporty new F-Pace. Through-the-road all-wheel drive would give it poor weather traction, and the electric motors would provide plenty of low-end punch. The model would go up against the Tesla Model X and a potential production version of the Audi E-Tron Quattro concept revealed in Frankfurt. Rather than handle production in-house, the E-Pace could emerge as the mysterious upcoming model which Jaguar Land Rover is planning to have Magna Steyr build on its behalf. The factory in Graz, Austria has long built the G-Class for Mercedes-Benz, continues to assemble the Mini Countryman, and has also handled models like the Aston Martin Rapide and BMW X3. Automobile figures that Jaguar would need to make at least 20,000 units each year to make the model profitable. For comparison's sake, Tesla is projected to move about 33,000 Model S units in 2015. Even if the E-Pace falls short of this target, the project could be worthwhile for JLR purely for publicity purposes and to help cut its average fleet emissions. Related Video:

Next-gen electric Jaguar XJ could pack as much as 800 horsepower

A report in Car magazine puts more meat on rumors about the next-generation Jaguar XJ. As has long been expected, the flagship English sedan is still predicted to move to an all-electric platform. The report says the XJ could be the first to move to Jaguar Land Rover's new Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) suitable for ICE, hybrid and battery-electric vehicles. That's the same platform that's supposed to be used for the XJ's twin, a more car-like Land Rover nicknamed the Road Rover by outsiders. The XJ could inherit I-Pace powertrain internals, with a couple of twists. The I-Pace hides a 90-kWh battery sending juice to two electric motors, one on each axle. Total system output comes to 394 horsepower and 512 pound-feet of torque. According to Car, the XJ could upgrade battery capacity to 100 kWh, and use it to power four electric motors placed at the wheels. Each of those motors could be rated up to 200 horsepower. This reads like pie-in-the-sky concept spec, but if Jaguar were to do such a thing, the XJ would immediately claim the power trophy among its luxury electric competition. Arguably the bigger question is when are we going to see it? Various corners have predicted a launch in 2019 for at least three years, and most recently just a year ago. Unless spy photographers have decided to ignore Coventry, we haven't seen a single mule or camo'd prototype, making the sedan seem no closer now than in 2016. What's more, Car's use of conditionals makes it sound like Jaguar hasn't nailed down the final specs. We know — or think we know — the XJ exterior will stick with the five-door liftback style. We get the feeling all else, as with so many things at JLR these days, is TBD. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.