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Jaguar, Land Rover to create two new platforms

March 2, 2010 


DETROIT — A radical new-model program at Jaguar and Land Rover will develop two new platforms to form the basis for all the luxury brands' future models, British magazine Autocar reports.

The strategy will begin by using the platform of Jaguar's elegant new XJ sedan — on sale in the U.S. this spring — as the basis for the next generation of Land Rover's rugged and luxurious Range Rover SUV. The XJ's platform is flexible enough to also support the Range Rover with relatively minor changes to its floor pan and front and rear crash structures, the usually well-informed magazine said, adding that the platform can also support Jag's XK luxury coupe and roadster.

A second platform will underpin the brands' smaller future vehicles.

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India's Tata Group, which acquired JLR from Ford last year, has hired former GM Europe boss Carl-Peter Forster as CEO of Tata Motors, which produces Jag, Land Rover and Tata vehicles including the $2,500 Tata Nano. Forster left GM when the automaker decided not to sell its European operations to supplier Magna and a Russian bank. Forster strongly supported the sale.

 


McClatchy-Tribune Information Services