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  • Jaguar Land Rover are two iconic brands in the automotive world.

  • Rich with heritage an excellent style and performance but each have

  • also suffered Rocky histories.

  • And for years each were passed between new owners in Europe and the

  • U.S. including BMW and Ford.

  • With BMW owning Land Rover and Ford owning Jaguar in the 80s.

  • Then just when they were on the verge of bankruptcy the two thoroughly

  • British sister brands were bought by the Indian, Tata Motors.

  • Part of the vast Tata Group empire that makes up everything from

  • software to food products.

  • When Tata acquired them in 2008, both Jaguar Land Rover had their fair

  • share of financial struggles and had fought to overcome reputations

  • for unreliability.

  • If you were going to say drive across the country in a given vehicle

  • and hope that everything went well.

  • Pre-Tata, Jaguar Land Rover would have been one of the last brands I

  • would have picked to do that in.

  • I just didn't have faith in their vehicles.

  • Worse, Tata had bought these brands and perhaps one the worst possible

  • times in recent history.

  • Right on the cusp of the financial crisis.

  • However in the years that followed, Tata Motors did something many

  • owners had failed to do before turning them into moneymakers.

  • But things are getting gloomy for jail are once again.

  • Just as these two legends have finally found some footing a

  • drastically shrinking market in China for JLR and trouble in Europe

  • are threatening them once again.

  • The S&P lowered the credit ratings of both JLR and Tata Motors in

  • early 2019 and they are now deep in junk status.

  • The question now?

  • Will Tata Motors be able to turn around JLR once more or is looking to

  • cut its losses?

  • Jaguar was founded in 1922 as the Swallows Side Car company by William

  • Lyons, a motorcycle enthusiast and engineer.

  • Back then the company initially made side cars, those little pods that

  • sit on the side of motorcycles.

  • But in 1935, Lyons built the S.S.

  • Jaguar.

  • It was the first car to bear the Jaguar name.

  • Over the years the company has made sleek aerodynamic sports cars and

  • became known for racing.

  • Number 20 is the winning Jaguar which eventually finish nine laps

  • ahead of the next car.

  • Having traveled at an average speed of 93.5

  • miles an hour.

  • Perhaps the most famous example was the E-type which Jaguar started

  • making in the 1960s.

  • Land Rover had an entirely different history making off-road vehicles

  • used by the military and bucolic customers in Europe and around the

  • world starting in 1947.

  • Over the years Land Rover developed a reputation for making rugged

  • trucks an SUV with a distinct British touch.

  • Models such as the defender, developed reputations for ruggedness and

  • capability rivaled perhaps only by few vehicles such as the Jeep

  • Wrangler.

  • Though also extremely capable, the brand's Range Rover was perhaps

  • what anticipated the trend in high end luxury sports utility

  • vehicles.

  • And has even been the target of scorn for its popularity with

  • well-heeled buyers who never drive the thing off pavement.

  • The two companies were rejoined under one roof beginning with Ford

  • buying Jaguar in the late 1980s.

  • But in terms of fully exploiting the brand name of strength that we

  • were building up in the company there's no question we should be able

  • to do a better job with the resources that Ford Motor Company will

  • make available.

  • And then in 2000, Ford bought Land Rover.

  • Ford under went its own troubles in the following years.

  • It had to sell off many of the premium names they had acquired

  • including Jaguar and Land Rover.

  • And another high-end British automaker Aston Martin.

  • Just eight years after Ford bought Land Rover, Ford sold it and Jaguar

  • to Tata Motors for about 2.7

  • billion dollars.

  • Tata Motors did exactly what many fans and enthusiasts say is the best

  • thing an owner can do for car companies as legendary as these.

  • And it paid off.

  • Jaguar Land Rover didn't really start to become a powerful and

  • competitive group of brands in the modern automotive world until Tata

  • took over.

  • And when Tata inherited both brands and invested the kind of money

  • that they had long needed invested.

  • That's when you saw everything from the design to the engineering to

  • most importantly the quality, reach a level that made them comparable

  • to things like a BMW or an Audi or a Mercedes.

  • Up until 2017, it looked like Tata Motors had engineered a lasting

  • turnaround for the legendary brands.

  • But things took a turn for the worse in 2018.

  • JLR posting a loss of about 4.3

  • billion dollars in fiscal year 2019.

  • Its biggest loss in the last 10 years.

  • That loss resulted in a large part from a nearly 4 billion dollar one

  • time write down.

  • However even taking that into account the company still would have

  • lost money.

  • The company said in January of 2019 that it's cutting 4,500 jobs about

  • 10 percent of its workforce.

  • Jaguar Land Rovers troubles have hurt parent company Tata motors.

  • JLR's recent troubles have been one of the factors contributing to

  • recent declines.

  • In April 2019, reports surfaced that Tata Motors is considering a sale

  • of the brands to French car manufacturer PSA.

  • Reports that Tata Motors denies.

  • Out of the two brands Land Rovers and the strongest.

  • But it has struggled as well.

  • A big part of the problem, Jaguar Land Rover sales in China fell about

  • 26 percent in May and 46 percent in April.

  • In March 2019, the company said sales in China had fallen 34 percent

  • for the fiscal 2018 to 2019 year.

  • It is also facing headwinds in Europe.

  • Brexit threatens to raise costs.

  • More than 40 percent materials used travels from the European Union to

  • the United Kingdom.

  • And it must contend with increasingly stringent emissions laws in

  • Europe following the so-called diesel gate scandal that rocked

  • Volkswagen and other companies in the automotive world.

  • In a comment to CNBC, Jaguar CEO Ralph space said that:

  • But the U.S.

  • may hold the keys for JLR's recovery.

  • Land Rover's strongest markets in North America where it's in the

  • fortunate position of being a premium sports utility maker in a time

  • where U.S.

  • customers are hungry for SUVs.

  • JLR sold about 10 times as many SUV as the United States as did

  • traditional passenger cars in 2018.

  • Despite the fact that jaguars portfolio is still heavy on sedans and

  • sports cars.

  • But Jaguar is leaning into utility vehicles too.

  • It sold almost twice as many SUVs in 2018 as its famous sports cars

  • and sedans.

  • And unlike brands such as Porsche, it's brushing aside the usual

  • criticism that moving towards utility vehicles is straying away from

  • its race car roots.

  • The Jaguar Land Rover CEO also said:

  • Jaguar

  • is also stepping forcefully into electric cars with its I-Pace

  • crossover which has been praised by critics.

  • The car swept the world car awards at the New York International Auto

  • Show in 2019.

  • But North America's continued appetite for its vehicles might not be

  • enough to engineer a full recovery for the two brands.

  • Industry analysts worry about a larger downturn in new car sales is

  • looming.

  • The easier path is just sell Land Rovers people know them by

  • Land Rovers.

  • But they are taking a longer path by of keeping both Jaguar Land Rover

  • together because there are a couple of restrictions which are coming

  • in terms of fleet norms and all those things which they need to meet

  • and hence they can work out.

  • In the meantime Tata Motors has fended off reports that it's

  • considering selling the division to PSA group,.

  • The very same French automaker that bought Opel and Vauxhall car

  • brands from General Motors and turn them around.

  • Jaguar Land Rover have history and heritage on their side.

  • But the global automotive industry is changing rapidly and it's

  • unknown how much of that history and heritage will count in a

  • business increasingly obsessed with the future.

Jaguar Land Rover are two iconic brands in the automotive world.

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