Ghostmates
A gust of Snickers went through the crowd of reporters at the Paris Motor Show as the new CEO of Jaguar Land Rover took the stage instead of the sweet inflections of an English Brogue, the new boss of some of the oldest brands and most revered of Blighty, Dr Ralf Speth, chased by his speech with the oompah-oompah beat of a thick Bavarian accent.
Since January 2010, a change of management at the top of Jaguar and Land Rover operations has recently combined firmly German executives in charge Welcome to the global automotive industry, which doesn t let some historical irony get in his way.
Take, for example, the 2008 purchase of both Jaguar and Ford's Land Rover by an industrial conglomerate headquartered in one of the former colonies of England All those who met Ratan Tata, chairman of Mumbai, India-based Tata Group, said he is very polite, intelligent and down-to-earth as it Sá billionaire several times.
But in buying Jaguar and Land Rover, Tata has both created and inherited a frighteningly complex management mess rather than relying on the British or Indian talent to sort, Tata went shopping in Germany, where the automotive industry is a tear with brisk sales and the state of the art technology.
In January, Tata installed the former GM Europe head Carl-Peter Forster Managing Director and CEO of Tata Motors Group, responsible for all Tata vehicles manufacturing operations In February, Speth, a veteran of BMW and the German supplier Linde, has had to run Jaguar and Land Rover specifically in September, the new German leadership cherry picked a former spokesman for GM-Opel, Frank Klaas, to order Jaguar Land Rover communications.
The new challenges are great team for years, Jaguar has struggled to lift sales against competitors with a product line of three cars including the XF sedan, coupe and convertible XK and XJ New limousine begins around 50,000, where luxury- the volume of car sales decreases considerably if it is to grow and better compete with luxury leaders, including BMW, Audi and Lexus, Jaguar must equip a cheaper offer this may mean spending a lot to develop a new steel platform with lower production costs.
Meanwhile, Land Rover is saddled with a hodgepodge of platforms and engines left over its various previous owners, including the flagship range Rover originally developed by BMW and the unibody LR2 and new Range Rover Evoque, which must cross their motor car platforms and powertrains for Ford.
In an interview at the Paris, Forster said Tata, who about product 1 2 million vehicles a year, including heavy trucks and buses for the Indian market, still weighing its options and bulking up their vehicle development staff by 50 percent over the next two to three years, and he wouldn t rule out the mixing of Jaguar and Land Rover products in a Jaguar version of the new Range Rover Evoque, for example, although Jaguar, at least, is in no hurry to expand its range and is likely to remain in his path while aluminum for now.
If we make 300,000 cars and 350,000 cars, nobody cares We are not in a rush to do even around 20,000 cars, he said that we are not going to grow because of the growth, however, it wouldn t be excluded the possibility that Jaguar may be sub-50,000 BMW 3-series fighter.
Outline of his conservative thinking, Forster said some unnamed competitors swarmed new products left and right, sometimes without wondering if the vehicles are worth the cost, I think he's referring to oddities such as BMW Gran Turismo 5 and luxury upcoming Audi A7 hatchback will they be profitable.
It seems there are people who do not always ask this question, says Forster.
Forster also said he's not concerned that his company has nothing to bridge the huge gap between cheap, low-margin minicars Tata product for the Indian market and the Epicureans Jaguar and Land Rover, he built for Tata developed countries s in no hurry to jump into the middle of the market where the biggest players, including Toyota, GM, Hyundai, and others, make the most of their sales, he said it is very difficult he ys a huge competition, especially from Asian manufacturers.
Cruelly, Forster also did not rule out a leverage Tata relationship with Fiat effect the two companies have a joint venture plant in India and will share the concessions, although there is nothing to announce at this moment.
Tata brings German ATeam understand Jaguar, tata, German, do.