A few weeks ago, barely days after the deal was signed, UK’s premier car magazine, Autocar, reported that Tata had toured Jaguar and Land Rover’s facilities for a week and come off complimenting the ‘can do’ spirit of the companies. While that is not cause for any surprise really, what caught the eye in that article was that he was going to tour the US later on and meet with the dealers of the two brands.

And as Autoweek has reported (via Autoblog), this tour has taken some of the oldest and the biggest dealers of the two brands in the US (who opposed the deal vehemently) by pleasant surprise (link).

“I was wrong,” Gorin now admits, speaking by phone on Friday, June 27, from Jaguar’s design center in Whitley, England. “Any concern I may have had has been completely dispelled. I couldn’t be more impressed.

If one was to believe the words of the dealers, Mr. Tata’s tour seems to be setting benchmarks for the whole auto industry (link)

“I’ve been a Jaguar dealer for 40 years,” says Norm Tompkins, owner of San Jose British Motors near San Francisco, whom Tata invited to lunch. “In all the years Ford owned us, I never met a single Ford executive.”

Tata’s entourage which has included several members of his top management team was flown in on his own personal jet and his personal touch seems to have reached out to the hearts of the dealers and made them rue the lack of similar treatment from their own parents.

“I was never hugged as much by my own father as I was hugged by him,” Aron admits. Aron, one of the first Jaguar dealers in the United States, invited Tata to his 55-year-old Imperial Motors store in Wilmette, Ill.

“He embraces you and touches you, which is a good thing. To me, that’s the sign of a very warmhearted person.

“I’m telling you this,” Aron says, growing serious: “He’s going to make something out of Jaguar. We’re in good hands now. My son can see his future here now.”

And Tata seems to have conveyed the message that he means business by calling a few Chicago area dealers for a dinner meeting.

Over steaks, the chairman and his secretary took notes on the comments. Dealers asked the new owner for a convertible Jaguar sports car. They alerted Tata that Bentley, owned by Volkswagen AG, has become a fierce new competitor for them and that Jaguar must have a higher-end car to compete with Bentley.

And during subsequent visits to these dealers’ facilities, Tata and his team gathered minutiae about the day to day operations.

“Can I tell you what he wanted to know?” Aron asks in mild amazement. ” ‘Mr. Aron,’ he said to me, ‘How many technicians do you have here? What is your profit margin on parts? What is your absorption rate?’ ” Aron says, referring to the percentage of a dealership’s operating costs covered by the service department.

“What is your absorption rate! Can you imagine the head of an automaker bothering to travel around the world to sit here and talk to me about such day-to-day business details? And he wrote down my answers!”

While this visit seems to have done a great deal towards establishing goodwill for Jaguar/Land Rovers’ new owners among the dealers, a lot of work still needs to be done. Both Jaguar and Land Rover have seen decline in the past years thanks to some unimaginative management by Ford. In the same period, competitors like Bentley and Aston Martin have grown impressively, both in terms of market share as well as brand consciousness.

A complete divorce from Ford’s legacy of mismanagement is perhaps needed. And Tata’s pleasantly unexpected visit is possibly the first step toward a turnaround that should, IMHO, most certainly include more offerings like the new XF. Maybe there’s some hope for these brands after all.

Mr. Tata goes to the USA - Über Desi

Autoblog is reporting (via Autonews.com) that Ford and Tata have put in the finally signed off on a 2.65 billion deal. Finally, Tata gets its hands on Jaguar a once proud brand that has since fallen into bad hands and a inept management, and Land Rover, a iconic brand that has seen a sharp resurgence in the past few years.

One can’t say for sure that Ratan Tata is the knight in shining armor, but hope is certainly the last resort of the damned. And fans of the these brands, while not exactly the damned, can certainly hope for better days.

While Autonews mentions that Ford will pad up pension funds by almost 600 million before Tata takes over, more details are expected once Ford makes its formal announcement before the NYSE opens tomorrow.

Breaking News - Jaguar/Land Rover change hands - Über Desi

It has mostly been about Nano. Tata’s new golf cart like roundabout has created ripples in the world automotive press. Skepticism abounds regarding the car’s emissions, but I consider this a damning sign of the ignorance of the world’s automotive press. The fact that the car can accommodate 4 adults and could boast of 50mpg performance has been lost in the brouhaha over emissions(I’ll leave my emissions explanation for another day).

Not for long, though. The fuel consumption of the Nano and other cars of its type, has now entered the fray as a major talking point, set off by CNN, no less. But not in the way you would expect.

The debut of the $2,500 car is just another reason Americans will pay more at the pump, and highlights a need for some creative urban planning in the developing world.

The debut of the $2,500 car may be billed as a mobility breakthrough for billions of people in the developing world, but for U.S. motorists it could mean one thing: higher gas prices.
Rising demand from the developing world has long been cited as a main driver behind the runup in oil prices. That demand will only get more intense with staggering growth in car sales - and by extension, gasoline use - in places like India and China.

One word - bollocks. Another word (or two) - Bullshit. Plain bovine excreta, that’s what this argument is.

In 2007, the best selling car in the country that consumes 25% of the world’s oil was a truck, the Ford F150 which boasts of a fuel average of 15mpg. And the F150 and its variants sold almost 690k units. Two other similar gas guzzlers sold roughly 620K and 360k units respectively. In contrast, when the Nano’s production reaches max capacity,5 years from now, it is expected to sell 500k units a year. Now I might be poor at math, but how will a car, whose sales volumes is lower than the current best seller’s and whole fuel economy is thrice that of the best seller, cause a spike in gas consumption and ergo prices? Not unless you prevaricate and stretch the truth.

The basis for this article seems to be a much hyped fuel price estimate. “Experts” have claimed that around 5 years from now, gas prices in the US will touch around $5 per gallon. The doomsday conspirators seem to think that the flirting with small roundabouts in developing countries like India will be one major reason for this.

“We’ll get into a situation where we’ll have to compete with them for gasoline, $4, $5 a gallon, who knows how high we could go.” said Peter Beutel, an oil analyst at the consultancy Cameron Hanover.

Someone tell me how I can get Peter Beutel’s job. At least someone remind him to do his background reading before he spews off. Either he is terribly uninformed or he has a inflated sense of entitlement.

A quick check with a friend on Gtalk confirmed that my measure of fuel prices in India was right. Currently petrol (aka gasoline) retails for Rs. 47 per litre. Now with a few nifty calculations, one can surmise that this translates, at current conversion rates, to $4.53. To make my point clear, I will tell you this - people in India pay roughly 50% more for gas even today and they pay a price that the US expects to see only 5 years later.

So does anybody else think that the bozos at CNN and our friendly neighborhood oil analysts should get their head checked?

Cheap Cars and Dear Gas - A Precognitive Prevarication - Über Desi

First, it has emerged that Chrysler’s electric cars division, Global Electric Motors (GEM) is working with Tata Motors to bring a electric mini truck to America. According to unconfirmed reports, the proposed mini truck will be an electric variant of the Ace.

It is interesting to note that while Tata terms the Ace a “mini truck”,if you consider its performance, it is but a glorified golf cart by world standards.

The 700cc engine delivers a power of 16 HP @ 3200 rpm and a torque of 3.8 mkg @ 2000 rpm. It is also eco-friendly and meets BS II and BS III standards. The water-cooled, twin -cylinder IDI engine has an overhead cam shaft, temperature sensitive cooling-system and rotary fuel injection pump, which together give high fuel efficiency and low-maintenance operation.

Businessline reports that the vehicle will assembled and shipped to the US minus an engine and the gearbox, both of which will be GEM’s responsibility.

The vehicle, that will mark the auto major’s entry into the US markets, will be exported as a completely built unit sans engine or gear box. The American counterpart, that already produces and sells a range of six NEVs, will fit it with the motor and controller, the sources said, adding that the branding details had not yet been worked out.

A spokesperson for Tata, while conceding that Tata is indeed in discussions with a company in the US, refused to name the company.

When contacted, the Tata Motors spokesperson said, “Tata Motors is indeed exploring the possibility of a vehicle on the Ace platform, with an electrical engine suitable for the US, in association with a US company. But it is premature at this stage to furnish any details”.

if sources are right, Tata has the right partnership in place for an underpowered vehicle like the Ace.

Established in 1998, the North Dakota-based GEM was purchased by DaimlerChrysler in 2000, and spun out along with Chrysler in 2007, when the two auto majors parted ways. The company currently manufactures NEVs that run on 72V electrolyte or gel batteries, have a top speed of 25 mph and a range of 30-40 miles on charge. Typically, they find utility in fleet services, hospitals, golf courses, parks, and residential complexes.

And then if this was not news enough, The Truth About Cars blog reports that Walmart might be talking to automakers, to sell electric cars. While it is not yet clear if Chrysler and GEM are in the mix, you might just get to see Tata branded (or at least Tata made) vehicles at your neighborhood superstore. And that might just make Tata’s year.

Is ‘08 the Year of the Tatas? - Über Desi