Jaguar Land Rover poised to leap into the future

NURBURG, GERMANY—When a car company invites journalists to a “media event,” it’s normally to introduce a new car, a new factory, a new process.


But a recent Jaguar Land Rover event held in England and Germany had none of the above.

OK, there were some refreshes to existing models: visits to a Virtual Reality design lab in Gaydon, England, and to the company’s advanced factory in Castle Bromwich (near Birmingham, initially constructed to build Spitfire warplanes in the late-1930s) which now makes the all-aluminum XJ luxury sport sedan. We also drove the famous off-road “Land Rover Experience” at Eastnor Castle in western England.

Plus road-and-track driving sessions in the XJ and XK-RS Jags on and around the fabled Nordschleife race circuit at the Nurburgring.


I never need much convincing to come here.

We’ll have more details on all of the above over the coming weeks here in Wheels, and on wheels.ca.


But to me, this international event seemed to have a larger purpose, to tell the world’s automotive press that the two iconic “British” companies are still here and are poised to rebound.

Both Jaguar and Land Rover have had more lives than the emblem on the nose of the former’s vehicles. Their corporate histories contain more twists and turns than seven seasons of Desperate Housewives.

Both were acquired from Ford by the giant Indian Tata conglomerate in 2008.

Many observers thought this would be the end for these two mighty brands, and initially there seemed to be serious customer reluctance, at least in certain markets, to buying an “Indian” luxury product.

But at the time, I figured, “Who else is going to buy these two companies? Who else is going to provide the investment needed to launch desperately needed new product?”

Perhaps more to the point, was there any other company which could better utilize the cachet that these two famed nameplates could offer?

From what (little) I know about it, Tata is a huge and successful organization which dates back to the mid-19th Century. Textiles, steel, hotels, chemicals, airline travel and of course cars and trucks — there aren’t many industrial sectors in India where Tata hasn’t played a major role.