Archive for the ‘Ford’ Category
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Ford Motor Co. plans to keep open for an additional two years a small-pickup plant in St. Paul, Minn., that had been slated to close in 2009, according to two people briefed on the company’s plans.
The move is expected to be announced Thursday as part of a plan to overhaul U.S. plants so Ford can make more cars and small vehicles and fewer large trucks and sport-utility vehicles, these people said.
Ford will also report its second-quarter earnings Thursday. Analysts expect the company to report a substantial loss. The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker has had massive declines in sales for its full-size pickups and SUVs, mainly as a result of rising fuel prices and a softening economy. The company has shut down truck production in several plants for most of the summer and delayed the launch of its 2009 F-150 pickup by two months until November.
Relatively consistent demand for Ford’s small pickup, the Ford Ranger, is one of the few bright spots in the dismal truck market. While sales of the Ford Explorer SUV fell 33.2% and its F-series pickups dropped 22.7% for the first half of the year, Ranger sales declined only 3.9% for the same period. As part of the company’s cutbacks first announced in 2006, Ford said it would shutter the Twin Cities Assembly Plant, which makes Rangers, by 2008. In 2007, the company revised its plans, saying the small-truck plant would close sometime in 2009. Now the life of the plant, while working with a single shift, has been extended until 2011.
News of the plant’s life extension will coincide with an announcement about a broad reshuffling of Ford’s product portfolio. The auto maker plans to convert three truck plants to car production as demand in the U.S. market reacts to $4-a-gallon gasoline prices.
Tags: Ford Pickup
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Monday, June 30th, 2008
How do you bring a new full-size pickup to market with $4-a-gallon gas?
That’s the challenge leaders at Ford Motor Co. face in launching the company’s best-selling product — the iconic F-150 — as the market moves faster than ever away from large trucks toward affordable, fuel-efficient cars.
The automaker already has made some big decisions designed to bring Ford trucks back to their Built-Ford-Tough roots. Instead of kicking off the launch of the all-new 2009 F-150 with luxurious four-door models, Ford instead will launch the truck with the 2-door models that always have been more popular among contractors, farmers and fleet customers.
What’s more, Ford also plans to focus most of its future marketing efforts on customers who buy a truck for work instead of pleasure or everyday driving — a big shift from the past when Ford was focused on selling Harley-Davidson and King Ranch SuperCrew trucks, which come with four regular doors, as luxurious substitutes for cars.
”The core truck buyer is who we’re going to focus on,“ Mike Crowley, Ford’s group marketing plans manager for trucks and SUVs, said. ”Those who want a truck, and need a truck, will make compromises to buy it.“
Of course, the F-150 won’t be the only pickup vying for their attention. The Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra, Dodge Ram and Toyota Tundra also will be competing for the shrinking pool of truck buyers.
But with an all-new version of the F-150, Ford still says it has a winner, despite the tough market.
Aside from its improved capability and innovative features, Crowley said Ford will spend more time talking about the improved fuel economy in the 2009 F-150, which involves seven models.
The current F-150 gets an average of 12 to 16 miles per gallon, depending on the model, according to federal government ratings.
But Crowley said Ford has achieved an improvement of 1.5 miles per gallon, on average, for the new F-150 lineup by making the new truck lighter and more aerodynamic and by adding a 6-speed transmission and a new, 4.6-liter, 3-valve V-8 engine.
By 2010, the F-150 also will be sold with an optional diesel engine, as well as EcoBoost — gasoline turbocharged direct-injection technology that will offer up to a 20 percent improvement in fuel economy, company spokesman Said Deep said.
Last Friday, in response to the worsening U.S. economy, Ford announced that it would delay the launch of the 2009 F-150 by two months — a move that will bring the truck to showrooms later this fall and give dealers more time to sell down the outgoing body style. It is scaling back production this year at its Louisvillle truck plant.
Through May, F-Series sales were down 18.7 percent, making the year-end sell-down take longer than usual.
While nationwide sales of full-size pickup trucks have plummeted 21.1 percent in the tough market, Ford and independent experts say there is still an opportunity for Ford to make meaningful gains in the market with its critical, new truck.
CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Ore., which does extensive studies on pickup buyers, breaks the segment into five categories of buyers: contractors; farmers and ranchers; towers, or people who pull RVs and boats; fleet customers, and so-called appearance buyers, or those who just like the look and image of a pickup.
But not all of those categories have experienced a decline in sales, Art Spinella, president of CNW, said Tuesday.
The percentage of pickup sales to contractors, fleet customers and farmers and ranchers is actually up, he noted.
And while the percentage of customers buying trucks to tow things has dropped modestly, most of the declines have come from people who are buying the truck strictly for appearance purposes.
In 2004, nearly one-fourth of pickup truck buyers, 24.8 percent, fell into this appearance category, CNW data shows.
Today, they make up less than 6 percent of pickup buyers.
”The appearance buyer is totally out of the market; he’s gone,“ Spinella said. ”That’s been the vast majority of the decline.“
Tags: Ford F-150 pickup
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Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Henry Ford II was famous for saying “Big cars, big profits. Small cars, small profits.”
Now a better mantra for the country’s second-largest carmaker might be “Big cars, no profits.”
Faced with crashing sales of big sport utility vehicles and pickups and an increasingly dim financial outlook as a result, Ford Motor Co. said Friday that it hoped to eke out small profit margins by ramping up production of small cars, cutting production of large trucks and SUVs and delaying release of its redesigned F-Series pickups by two months. But many of the fuel-efficient sedans and hatchbacks aren’t expected to hit dealer lots for at least 18 months.
“We view the move to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles as permanent, and we are responding to customer demand,” said Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally, blaming gasoline prices, which have climbed above $4 a gallon, in part for the shift.
Because of sagging sales, Ford said it did not expect to reach profitability in 2009 and that even its long-profitable lending division would lose money this year, largely because of declining resale values for SUVs and pickups.
Ford has not shown a profit since 2005, when it earned $2 billion. Over the last two years, it lost a combined $15.3 billion.
The Dearborn, Mich., automaker said it would cut overall production significantly for the remainder of the year, as much as 25% in the third quarter. At the same time, Ford plans to increase production of its sole compact car, the Focus, as well as of the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner small SUVs.
Ford also confirmed plans to begin U.S. sales of its well-regarded European Ford Focus — a more refined, higher-end car than its North American counterpart. Ford previously had announced plans to produce the new Fiesta, a European-styled economy car, in North America as well. Neither will be released until 2010.
“The revamp of Ford’s product line can’t come fast enough,” said Aaron Bragman, industry analyst at forecasting firm Global Insight. “Ford needs these cars right now.”
It’s difficult to overstate how large a change such a downshift is for Ford.
For nearly two decades, the SUV and full-size pickup have been emblematic of the fortunes of American carmaking. And arguably no company benefited more from them than Ford, which pioneered with the medium-size SUV Explorer, the full-size Expedition and super-size Excursion (no longer in production).
Those kinds of vehicles are extremely profitable, analysts say, because their production costs are only marginally higher than those of even the smallest car, but their retail prices can be many times more.
“You’ve got to pay a little bit more for materials in an Expedition than a Focus, but labor costs and plant costs don’t change,” said Erich Merkle, an analyst at IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids, Mich. The price difference, however, is huge: A loaded Focus costs $22,515, but an Expedition with all the bells and whistles comes in at $55,020.
Moreover, while the SUV and truck market is relatively uncrowded, the sedan market is fiercely competitive, with dozens of models and very tight pricing.
That segment, long dominated by Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., is characterized by per-vehicle profit of as little as $100, compared with as much as $10,000 on an F-150 Supercab, Merkle said. For that reason, he and other analysts say, Detroit has preferred trucks.
Now, however, with gas prices in the ionosphere and credit increasingly tight, the big vehicles appear to be in their death throes.
Resale values for pickups and SUVs fell at least 21% in May compared with a year earlier, according to Manheim Consulting, and new sales in that category are down 16% year to date.
Focus has been a winner for Ford so far this year. Its sales were up 36% through May, and it was the company’s second-best selling vehicle, after the F-Series pickup trucks.
Overall, Ford has seen U.S. sales decline 11% on the year, better than General Motors Corp. (down 15.8%) or Chrysler (down 19.3%). Honda, which has no full-size anything to speak of, has increased sales by nearly 5% in what is shaping up to be the worst year for vehicle sales in decades.
Ford did post a surprise $100-million profit in the first quarter, but just weeks later said it would miss long-promised goals of a profitable 2009.
Friday’s news drove Ford stock down 8%, or 51 cents, to $5.81. A Lehman Bros. analyst said Ford Motor Credit may need to write down $1.1 billion in outstanding loans, and debt rating agency Moody’s downgraded its outlook for Ford to “negative” from “stable,” citing “the increasingly challenging environment faced by it and the other domestic auto manufacturers.”
Meanwhile, activist investor Kirk Kerkorian has been buying up Ford stock, increasing his stake to 6.5% this week and meeting in Los Angeles with Mulally and Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr.
Known for his attempts to wrest control of GM and Chrysler in the past, Kerkorian’s interest has sparked speculation about a shake-up.
That worries some Ford-watchers, who fear that too much meddling could derail the turnaround plan that Mulally has been executing since he came on in late 2006.
Since then, Mulally has significantly cut costs, signed a new labor agreement with the United Auto Workers union and hired several promising young executives.
“What’s going on isn’t Ford’s fault and it isn’t Mulally’s fault,” analyst Bragman said. “Everybody expected trucks and SUVs to turn around by now. Nobody expected $4 gas.”
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Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Ford India Pvt. Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of global auto major Ford Motors Co., will invest $500 million to set up a small car production facility and an engine manufacturing unit in India by 2010, a senior company official said here Tuesday.
“The investment is part of the company’s capacity expansion plans in India,” Ford India executive director (marketing, sales and service) Nigel E. Wark told reporters at the launch of the new Ford Fiesta 1.6S.
He said the new engine manufacturing facility would be constructed adjacent to the existing plant near Chennai. Both petrol and Ford’s next generation diesel engines would be manufactured here.
Wark said the car plant capacity would be doubled to 2,00,000 annually, while the initial annual production capacity of the engine manufacturing unit is planned for 250,000 units, with the first engines coming off assembly by 2010,” he said.
Ford has been in India since 1907, but received government approval to forge a 50:50 partnership with Mahindra and Mahindra in 1995.
In 1998, Ford got the green signal to increase its stake in the joint venture to 92.18 percent and the company was re-christened as Ford India Pvt. Ltd.
“The company has sold about 65,000 vehicles in India since its launch in 1995. We expect to acquire a good market share with the launch of this new Ford Fiesta range as it would be a fuel efficient car,” Wark said, declining to share any specific details about the sales plans in the coming years.
He said the price of new Ford Fiesta model, available in petrol and turbo-diesel variants, would be reviewed in September.
Ford’s total market share of the B, B+ Mav segment in India was 15.4 percent in 2007. In the last five months, it sold 12,800 vehicles in India.
Tags: Ford Fiesta India
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Monday, June 23rd, 2008
The Ford Motor Company said on Friday that it would delay introducing its new pickup, a vehicle critical to its plan to become profitable, and that it would probably lose money for a fourth consecutive year in 2009 because of a precipitous drop in demand for large vehicles.
Ford said it would begin selling the highly anticipated 2009 version of the F-150 pickup in late fall, two months later than intended, because dealers needed more time to clear out the current model, which had been deeply discounted.
In addition, the company announced its second significant production cut in a month, saying it would build 90,000 fewer pickups and sport utility vehicles in the second half of the year than it had previously planned.
It is increasing production of more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers, but over all, Ford plans to build 25 percent fewer vehicles in the third quarter than it did in the same period of 2007.
Ford said it expected industry sales of 14.4 million to 14.9 million light vehicles, down from its previous projection of up to 15 million.
“As gasoline prices average more than $4 a gallon and consumers worry about the weak U.S. economy, we see June industry-wide auto sales slowing further and demand for large trucks and S.U.V.’s at one of the lowest levels in decades,” Ford’s chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, said in a statement. “Ford has taken decisive action to respond to this accelerating shift in customer demand away from large trucks and S.U.V.’s to smaller cars and crossovers.”
Two debt-rating services, Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s, warned on Friday that they might downgrade Ford, along with the other Detroit automakers. Bruce Clark, a senior vice president at Moody’s, said Ford’s ability to finance its reorganization was becoming a concern. Ford said cash outflows would be larger than expected and that its automotive business would lose more money this year than in 2007, the opposite of its previous guidance.
“Ford is going to burn a considerable amount of cash until it adequately expands its fleet of fuel-efficient cars and convinces consumers that these vehicles offer competitive value relative to Japanese product,” Mr. Clark said.
A liquidity crisis could allow Kirk Kerkorian, the billionaire investor, to gain influence at Ford. On Thursday, Mr. Kerkorian said he had increased his stake in the company to 6.49 percent and offered to infuse additional capital.
Ford took another step back from its long-held goal of returning to profitability by 2009, saying it would have difficulty breaking even, which is the projection that executives made in late May. Ford lost $2.7 billion over all in 2007 and has not earned a full-year profit since 2005.
The automaker said the market had deteriorated to such a degree that its financing arm, Ford Motor Credit, which had been a dependable source of profit, would lose money this year and was no longer planning a distribution payment to Ford in 2008. Ford Credit will have a pretax loss — excluding any potential payment related to Ford’s profit maintenance agreement — primarily because of further weakness in large truck and S.U.V. auction values.
Brian Johnson, an analyst at Lehman Brothers, projected that both Ford and General Motors might have to write down the value of their financing arms by at least $1 billion because of falling used-car prices.
Shares of Ford declined more than 8 percent Friday, closing at $5.81, and have fallen 31 percent since May 1. G.M. shares were down nearly 7 percent, to $13.79.
The F-150 delay increases the likelihood that the F-series will lose its distinction as the best-selling vehicle in the United States after 26 consecutive years. In May, four Japanese sedans, led by the Honda Civic, outsold the F-series, the first time in 16 years that a pickup truck was not the nation’s top seller in any given month. Sales of the F-series fell 33 percent last month and were down 20 percent so far this year.
Ford has spent several years and hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, overhauling the F-150, which has generated huge profits and is responsible for a large part of Ford’s image. It is one of two new full-size pickups scheduled to go on sale this fall, along with Chrysler’s 2009 Dodge Ram.
Chrysler said it had no plans to delay the Ram’s release.
“There’s no better way to fight a slower pickup market than to introduce what we think is a game-changing truck,” a Chrysler spokesman, Bryan Zvibleman, said.
G.M., meanwhile, has indefinitely halted plans to revamp its pickups and S.U.V.’s in order to focus on smaller cars. Earlier this month, G.M. announced plans to close four truck plants in North America.
Ford is idling its truck plant in Wayne, Mich., for nine weeks starting Monday, though the adjacent car plant is adding workers. The company will eliminate a shift at each of the two plants that build the F-150 and plans to shut one of them for most of the third quarter before starting to build the new F-150.
“We view the move to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles as permanent, and we are responding to customer demand,” Mr. Mulally said.
Tags: Ford New Pickup
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Friday, June 20th, 2008
We all know that Ford pickups are the America best-selling trucks. Ford now delivers an enhanced model of F-150 ( the model presented in November 2006 ) that gives the Ford truck enthusiasts what they need : a more powerful engine . This new truck has a 450 horsepower engine and weights just tons, now becoming one of the most powerful pickups on the market. Harley Davidson F-150 is available only in Dark Amethyst or Ebony Black ( Gleaming chrome color ) , 22-inch oversized wheels( polished forged aluminum rims ) and tires, and a custom stripe that runs along the beltline that creates a glued-to-the-ground and a speed motion illusion . The bold front-end features a unique chrome billet grill and blacked-out headlamps. The side tubes and the lower front valence (also know as chin spoiler) also creates the illusion of a more lowered look. 5-spoke sport design rims, dark tinted tail lamps, a slash-cut chrome exhaust tip.
What can you ask more? It has everything you want at a pickup . And the most distinguish component for this pickup is the “Harley-Davidson F-150″ badge, located in the rear.The pricing for standard Harley Davidson F-150 starts somewhere at $37.210. The Saleen Supercharger costs $6500, but it’s available only through Ford dealers. This truck is the 9th model that emerged from the Ford/Harley Davidson partnership, which began in 1999. The Harley-Davidson F-series was a successful formula until now, until now over 60,000 units being sold. It remains to see if their success will continue with the 2007 Harley-Davidson F-150 truck.In conclusion we must say that Ford has a reputation in truck manufacturing. Their success comes from the fact that they listen to the client’s demands. “Ford is the truck leader because we pay attention to what our customers want and move quickly to meet”, said Ben Poore, Ford Truck group marketing manager.
Tags: Harley-Davidson F-150
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Thursday, June 5th, 2008
Sales of Ford’s Ranger fell nearly 25 percent last month, as the St. Paul-made pickup suffered in the face of a dramatic drop-off in demand for trucks across the industry.
Ford sold 7,239 Rangers in May, versus 9,608 in the same month last year.
Sales of trucks and SUV fell nationwide as consumers turned away from fuel-guzzling vehicles in favor of more efficient models. Toyota’s Camry and Corolla cars both outsold Ford’s larger F-series trucks, the market leader for nearly two decades.
The Ranger had made some gains in recent months, on the strength of price incentives and fuel economy that’s better than the larger Ford trucks.
The St. Paul assembly plant that makes the Ranger is currently scheduled to close in the fall of 2009.
Earlier this week, Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said that the Ranger might be revived in some form - he spoke to reporters in Washington about an updated Ranger truck or a smaller F-150 - in a response to higher oil prices. But there’s no indication that the automaker is thinking of building such a vehicle in the Twin Cities.
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Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday its U.S. sales fell 15 percent in May as consumers continued to abandon pickups and sport utility vehicles in favor of smaller cars, an industry-wide shift that will force plant closures at General Motors Corp. and production cuts at Ford.
Ford said its car sales were up 3 percent compared with last May, and it sold more than 30,000 Ford Focus small cars for only the second time in the car’s nine-year history. But pickup and SUV sales dropped 24 percent. No truck was immune: Ford’s F-series trucks, the best-selling vehicles in the U.S. for 31 years, plummeted 31 percent.
The rapid decline in truck and SUV sales caused GM to announce Tuesday that it plans to close four truck and SUV plants by 2010, costing 10,000 jobs. Ford said last month it plans to slash North American production of trucks and SUVs for the rest of the year. Ford also is planning to lay off salaried workers. Ford promised more details on its restructuring plan in July.
Other automakers were scheduled to report May sales later Tuesday.
GM shares rose 35 cents, or 2 percent, to $17.79 in afternoon trading. Ford shares rose 3 cents to $6.67.
The Associated Press reports unadjusted figures, calculating the percentage change in the total number of vehicles sold in one month compared with the same month a year earlier. Some automakers report percentages adjusted for sales days. There were 27 sales days last month and 26 in May 2007.
Tags: Ford US sales
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Four-dollar-per-gallon gasoline may be wreaking havoc on sales of the Mustang, F-150 and Explorer, but it comes along at a convenient moment for the facelifted 2009 Escape and Mariner. Six-speed automatics replace four-speed automatics, there’s a new lower front chin spoiler below the redesigned front fascia and rear tire spoilers for better aerodynamics, and new low rolling resistance 16-inch Michelin tires across the board. The old 153-horsepower 2.3-liter four has been bored and stroked (among other upgrades) to a 171-horsepower 2.5-liter, and the 3.0-liter V-6 gets new cylinder heads, injectors, intake and exhaust cams, manifolds and pistons, and a compression ratio bump from 10.0:1 to 10.3:1.
So now the V-6 actually has a V-6-like horsepower number, up 40 ponies to 240. Both engines get intelligent variable valve timing. The hybrid gets the new 2.5-liter, too, and for ‘09 runs on the Atkinson cycle. It has a new engine processor and a new powertrain damping system, to cut vibrations and feedback.Ford anticipates EPA mileage will be up 1-mpg city, 1-mpg highway, whether you get the four, the V-6 or the hybrid. The biggest change, though, is that you no longer have to buy one of the bottom-feeder trim levels to get four-cylinder fuel economy. The 2.5 is available all the way up to the Escape Limited and Mercury Mariner Premier versions. Small engines are big now, even with buyers who can afford more. Ford even removed the “V-6″ badge from so-equipped ‘09 models as if it has become a badge of extravagance and disregard for the environment and global oil supply.
That makes the extra 18 horses for the four-banger the most important improvement. The 171-horse Escape isn’t a rocket. It’s simply an adequate engine in a smallish crossover, the right vehicle for those who like to ride higher than in cars, carry a few things and manage 21/27 mpg (FWD) or 20/25 (AWD), assuming the EPA backs up Ford on its estimates. Ford says about 45 percent of buyers choose four-cylinder models, virtually unchanged since the first Escape launched as a ‘01 model. Now that the new four is close to the fours in the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 for refinement, and packs in five extra horses, the “take rate” ought to zoom well past the V-6.
Added refinement comes with the new four, producing better engine noise. It’s still a raspy sounding four under full-throttle acceleration, but it’s fairly smooth under most conditions. The six-speed automatic (a five-speed manual remains standard with the four) smoothens the power delivery, and there’s none of the hunting for gears of the old 2.3-liter/four-speed auto combo. Acceleration matches the ’08’s 200-horsepower V-6/four-speed auto combination, at 10.4 seconds for 0-60 mph, Ford says.
The extra 40 horses in the V-6 made necessary by the more powerful new four cuts 0-60 mph times by 1.7 seconds, according to the manufacturer. Ford also has revised the suspension, including the addition of a rear anti-roll bar for all models, making the “2009 Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner more fun to drive.” Well, no. It’s not fun to drive. It’s a crossover sport/utility vehicle. But it’s more refined and quieter at speed. And by the way, Ford claims the lower-front air dam saves 3/4-mpg at 70 mph. The low rolling resistance tires makes the steering feel lighter at low speeds. Suspension is stable and reasonably comfortable over crusty roads. As for “fun to drive,” you don’t want to take any CUV this tall too deeply into the curves, anyway. This one is no exception.
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Final sale of Jaguar, Land Rover expected on Monday
Ford Motor Co. is expected to close the sale of its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands to India’s Tata Motors Monday, sources familiar with the situation said on Friday.
Terms remain largely unchanged from those in the preliminary agreement that Ford and Tata announced in March, they said.
Tata will pay Ford about $2.3 billion for the British carmakers, but Ford will contribute about $600 million of that to the Jaguar and Land Rover pension funds.
That means Ford will net about $1.7 billion from the deal, which concludes the Dearborn automaker’s long involvement with British luxury brands. Last year, Ford sold the Aston Martin carmaker to a group of investors for $925 million.
Ford declined to confirm. “As we have said, we expect to close in the second quarter,” said Ford spokesman John Gardiner.
With the U.S. auto market now in a severe contraction, Ford needs cash. After posting a $100 million profit in the first quarter, Ford is expanding its restructuring efforts and contemplating cutting as much as 12 percent of its U.S. white-collar work force.
Of the companies it acquired in Europe in the 1980s and 1990s to create a Premier Automotive Group, Ford still owns the Swedish carmaker Volvo. But with Volvo now struggling financially, it may also end up on the selling block, say sources close to Ford.
Analyst David Healy at Burnham Securities said the $1.7 billion that Ford will net “isn’t going to make or break Ford.”
But like most Wall Street analysts, he views the sale as a good move for the U.S. automaker. The cumulative cost to Ford of Jaguar has been estimated at between $11 billion and $13 billion.
While Land Rover — one of the first manufacturers of SUVs — has become profitable, its contributions to Ford were negligible. The two British carmakers “were a drain on both management and finances,” Healy said.
The sale of the British brands to Tata initially raised eyebrows. The Indian automaker, part of a $29 billion conglomerate, specializes in making trucks and inexpensive vehicles. It recently rolled out a $2,500 Nano car.
But industry experts say Tata has a good record managing acquisitions. In the past 10 years, it has bought Anglo-Dutch steel giant Corus Group to become the world’s sixth-largest steelmaker, the Daewoo commercial vehicles business, Britain’s Tetley tea company and American hotels, including the Pierre in New York.
With the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover, Tata Motors gains a foothold in most major markets. And with Daimler AG as a 7 percent shareholder in Tata, the Indian automaker may be able to seek cooperation or technical expertise from the German carmaker.
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors and Tata Sons, one of the holding companies for the group, said earlier this year that he was spurred to expand abroad by the prospect of fast-growing Chinese manufacturers. He pledged that Tata would preserve the identities of Jaguar and Land Rover.
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