I’d hate to say I called it but… I called it. Back when we learned that BMW was partnering with Jaguar Land Rover on some EV technology, I said that I had wanted BMW just to buy JLR outright. While such an idea was unrealistic at the time, some reports had followed that with rumors of a potential acquisition of JLR by BMW. Though, those rumors seemed unfounded and purely speculative. Until now, that is.
To be honest, an outright sale of the Jaguar Land Rover brands is unlikely, as JLR parent company Tata Motors isn’t really looking to sell it. However, Tata has recently reached out to several larger automotive brands for partnerships on JLR. Apparently, Tata knows that it can’t fix JLR with just money and needs some manufacturing capability, resources and know-how to go along with it.
The brands Tata has approached are said to be Geely, the Chinese based automaker that owns Volvo, and BMW AG.
Having said that, Geely recently made a statement claiming that it’s not in talks with Tata about a potential partnership. So that takes it out of the conversation. While BMW declined to comment, as did Tata. So it seems as if there might actually be some real merit to that claim and, to be honest, it seems to make some sense. BMW has the resources to help make JLR a very profitable company and some of the awesome cars in the Jaguar Land Rover stable could help BMW as well.
“Carmakers need to invest a lot of money in developing new technology, and Tata doesn’t have deep pockets to keep funding development,” said Deepesh Rathore, an independent auto analyst in Bangalore, India. “You don’t want to be left behind, especially in the luxury segment, and at the same time, Tata doesn’t want to let go of JLR, which is its crown jewel.”
So such a deal could benefit Tata, BMW and Jaguar Land Rover. On top of that, it will benefit us BMW fans as well. Though, only if Jaguar Land Rover helps BMW in the styling department and not the other way around…
[Source: Bloomberg]
