Land Rover's new model blitz

Land Rover has "tremendous growth potential" Tata Motors boss Carl-Peter Forster told the SMMT annual conference in London last week.Forster said the company needs to fill more market sectors and could possibly start building cars outside of the UK.

He added that Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover’s parent, will also need to embark on a new-model blitz that would not only see more models joining the Evoque but existing ones being overhauled with smaller petrol and diesel engines and hybrid power. The overhaul will likely increase the amount of component sharing between Tata, Jaguar and Land Rover. For example, the next Range Rover, due in 2013, is likely to be based on a similar aluminium structure to the current Jaguar XJ’s. Forster revealed that as part of JLR’s growth plans, the company would be recruiting 1700 engineers, 50 per cent more than the current number.

He also admitted that he was undertaking a review of the company’s manufacturing structure that could lead to Land Rovers and Jaguars being built in India or China.But he remains convinced that JLR will not migrate its engineering base and that all Land Rovers and Jaguars will still be conceived in the UK. “We’re not going to be engineering the next XJ in India,” he said.