India's Tata Motors has reported a net loss of $520 million (25.05 billion rupees) for the fiscal year ending in March of 2009. Over the same period one year earlier, Tata managed to earn 21.68 billion rupees in profit. What gives? Naturally, the global economic meltdown didn't do the automaker any favors, but the main problem can be sourced back to the poor performance of Jaguar and Land Rover, which the Indian automaker purchased from Ford last year with the help of a $3 billion bridge loan.

The fact that Jaguar Land Rover accounted for $504 million of that $520 million total loss means that more job cuts and plant shutdowns are in store for the ailing British duo. Says Tata Vice Chairman Ravi Kant:

We have sent people on sabbatical, gone for cheaper low-cost country sourcing and tight control in cash flows, and are assisting JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) for a major belt tightening.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Tata was in search of some £1 billion ($1.5B) in cash and underwriting help to pump into the JLR operations.



[Source: Reuters]

Automakers that hope to continue doing business over the next few years need to be increasingly aware of their fuel consumption, emissions and environmental credibility. In deference to this fact, Auto Express in the U.K. is reporting that Land Rover is moving forward with plans to launch the new LRX compact hybrid 'ute, possibly with a bit of help from the U.K. government.

According to the report, Land Rover will borrow liberally from corporate partner Jaguar's hardware stable, which is rumored to soon include both hybrid and extended-range EV options. Land Rover's innovative electric drive rear axle is supposedly on the LRX menu, which would work along with the automaker's well-known and highly-effective Terrain Response System to put power to the ground wherever possible.

If there's any truth to these rumors, we shouldn't expect Land Rover to have the hybrid LRX in production until at least two years have passed. In the meantime, the British-built, Indian-owned automaker is set to debut stop/start and regenerative braking on all of its models to improve their environmental performance.



[Source: Auto Express]

It doesn't get more back-to-basics than the Land Rover Defender. While most of the world's most hard-core off-roaders – Toyota Land Cruiser, Mercedes G-Wagen, Hummer H2 – have all gone luxed-out, the Defender soldiers on as the bare-bones option. Essentially the same body-on-frame design from 1948, the Defender is still hand-assembled. But what's Land Rover to do when the market demands luxury? Lux out the Defender, of course.

The limited-production Fire & Ice editions come packed with all the features they could fit in the Defender: Recaro buckets, leather and Alcantara trim, diamond-turned alloys, color-coded head- and tail- lights, glass sunroof panel, running boards and more. The Fire edition comes in a special Vesuvius Orange metallic paint, the Ice edition in Alaska white, both offset by Santorini black accents. All that kit drives the price of the special Land Rover up to €68,400, the equivalent of about $95,000. Just 850 examples will be on offer in various markets across Europe, China and in South Africa. Check out the high-res images in the gallery below for all the angles.



[Source: Land Rover]

Land Rovers have always gone their own way – often literally. While off-roading demands a low center of gravity and muddy trails would seem to warrant hose-out interiors and body-on-frame-construction, the British automaker has long contented itself building tippy-looking unibody boxes with tall greenhouses and opulent cabins – the anti-Humvee, as it were. Further, in recent iterations, they've packed their products with immense electronic systems, air suspensions, dial-a-topography Terrain Response controller, and so on... the very sort of complexity that ought to be enough to send English sports car enthusiasts running back to their therapists' offices.

And yet, the formula has always worked – vehicles like the Range Rover and Discovery (now LR3) have somehow managed to earn both Kalahari-traversing credentials and valet stand privileges. Other companies have attempted the leather-lined off-roader thing before (Lamborghini, Lexus, Hummer, Porsche, and LaForza come to mind), but while some have added the trappings of luxury to their SUVs, exactly no one has been as successful in marrying their vehicles to the notion of aristocracy – the sort of "Lord and Master of All That I Survey" quality that has remained Solihull's historic preserve. In short, Land Rovers have always been a gloriously and uniquely British contradiction on wheels – a fact that goes some way toward explaining why your author remains more than a little conflicted when it comes to this LR2.

Click through to the jump to find how it all shakes out.



Photos copyright ©2009 Chris Paukert / Weblogs, Inc.

We don't know how many times through the millennia one gentleman has told another, "Be careful with her – she's beautiful, but she's expensive." We would like to know if Alan Mullaly offered that warning to Ratan Tata (above) before the latter bought Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR). As with the Blue Oval before it, Tata Motors is about to throw billions at the English luxury marques and it is looking for help doing it.

Tata wanted the British government to guarantee a £340 million loan ($515M USD) Tata received from the European Investment Board. The government refused to underwrite the entire amount, and it was written that the government additionally wanted Tata to invest up to another £400M ($605M) in JLR (on top of the £900M ($1.36B) Tata pitched in last summer) and put £50M ($76B) on the table before it would underwrite anything. The government is also said to have wanted veto power on top executive choices and labor plans.

Those talks, unsurprisingly, went nowhere. Now Tata is looking to banks for £1 billion ($1.5B) in cash and underwriting help. Citigroup is has begun the search for lenders to provide the money by September, which everyone expects to come with heavy-duty interest rates. With the state of the market and Tata's other recent purchases, 2009 is shaping up as an expensive year for the Indian company.

[Source: Global Motors | Image: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty]

Jaguar is apparently planning to attack the upstart Fisker Karma head-on with an extended range electric version of the all-new XJ. The completely reworked XJ is due to arrive in July and hit dealers in December with a look heavily influenced by the smaller XF. A year later, the Indian-owned British luxury automaker will reportedly launch a plug-in version with 30 miles of electric only range that should help the big car get 47 mpg (US) and a CO2 emissions rating of less than 120 g/km.

Jaguar will be able to introduce this new model now that it has approved for a new EU loan for developing greener cars. Jaguar already has an advantage over some of its competitors because the full-size XJ is comparatively light thanks to its aluminum construction. Lotus Engineering and Caparo are helping Jaguar with development of the ER-EV powertrain.

Additionally, Jaguar and Land Rover are rumored to be developing micro-hybrids, full parallel hybrids, smaller diesel engines, and boosted gas engines along with even more weight reductions for the full lineup.

[Source: AutoCar]

Like the new LR4 and classic Range Rover, the Range Rover Sport also gets plenty of upgrades for the 2010 model year. Like the regular RR, the Sport gets the same 5.0L direct-inject V8s from Jaguar in either naturally aspirated or supercharged guise plus a new six-speed automatic transmission. The NA puts out 375 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque while the force fed mill creates 510 hp and 461 lb-ft of torque, the latter good for 5.9-second sprints to 60 mph. The Sport's exterior has also been tweaked with a new two-bar grille centered in the revised front end and new rear tail-lamps nestled above a redesigned rear bumper. The interior has also been redone with higher quality materials and a new steering wheel that includes paddle shifters on the supercharged model. Throw in enough electronic nannies to make even the Queen look like a good driver and you've got an eminently more capable sports SUV than the one it replaces.



[Source: Land Rover]

While Land Rover's sales have been flagging like almost every other automaker in this economy, it has been the company's venerable Range Rover SUV that has held down the fort, maintaining its share better than any other product in the British automaker's empire. This is a particularly impressive feat, as the Range Rover is the longest-serving model in the company's off-road arsenal to go without a major update. Until now.

Not that you can tell from the outside terribly easily, mind. The outgoing model is something of a style icon, so you could forgive LR stylists for not wanting to futz unnecessarily with the styling. Still, changes are substantial yet modest – there are new headlamps, a new grille, a refreshed bumper cap, relocated fog lamps, and a triple theme to the sides and rear of the vehicle that includes three-section fender vents, 'three-stripe' LED side indicators, and new LED taillamps that incorporate the same 'three-stripe' motif.

Inside, the changes are more dramatic, punctuated by a new virtual gauge cluster that utilizes a 12-inch Thin Film Transistor (TFT) screen in place of traditional analog needle instruments – Current Mercedes S-Class owners enjoy a similar setup. Other interior adjustments include a raft of new switchgear, a revamped steering wheel with new multi-directional thumbpads, a new leather headliner and a much-needed upgrade to the navigation system. The new GPS system is hard-drive based touchscreen setup that also includes enhanced USB connectivity and a dedicated iPod port.

Click on the jump for more of this writeup and a detailed press release.

On the eve of the New York Auto Show, Land Rover has released all the details on its new 2010 LR4. The new LR4 (the SUV formerly-known-as LR3) is packing a thoroughly revised, direct-injected 5.0-liter V8 sourced from Jaguar putting 375 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque through a six-speed automatic transmission. Land Rover has updated its Terrain Response system to deliver five different settings to suit the terrain, ranging from a normal driving mode to the infamous "Rock Crawl" setting.

A new front end with revised headlamps and fascia joins a restyled rump with LEDs, while an all-new interior provides ample accommodations for five or seven passengers, depending on spec. A Surround Camera system joins keyless entry, push-button start, gradient release control and tow assist (max. towing is 7,716 pounds) to make jaunts to Grandma's through the snowy climes a breeze. A revised suspension architecture, improved steering and larger brakes (14.2-inch discs in front and 13.8-inch rotors in the rear) round out the major modifications.

Hit the jump for all the details and check the gallery below for plenty of LR4 eye-candy.

Even in the face of an overall market for SUVs that's seen demand fall by over 50% over the last year alone, Land Rover's top-level Range Rover is keeping the British/Indian automaker afloat. Sales of the Range Rover – which boasts a starting price of $78,525 – are down only 17.8-percent for the first two months of the year. It's the smaller LR3 (down 28%) and entry-level LR2 (down a whopping 57%) that are dragging the automaker's overall sales figures (down 36.6%) into the mud.

Given its importance to the brand, word that an updated Range Rover is expected at next week's New York Auto Show is big news. Spy shots of the new Rover indicate that exterior changes won't be terribly dramatic for the model that was launched way back in 2002, but there should be big news under the hood, where we expect Jaguar's 5.0-liter all-aluminum V8 engine to take up residence.

Given how well the Range Rover name resonates with 4x4 buyers, it's not surprising to hear that the British company may badge its upcoming production version of the LRX concept (which debuted at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show) as a Range Rover. Like the concept upon which it's based, the new model will be a coupe-like take on the automaker's well-defined SUV theme. However, given the frequency with which consumers already often interchange "Land Rover" (the brand) and "Range Rover" (the model) – not to mention "Range Rover Sport" (the model) – this arrangement sounds potentially confusing. Further, given the LRX's more road-oriented mission, one has to wonder if branding the LRX as a "Range Rover" will serve to dilut the range-topping vehicle's hard-earned off-road equity...



[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd | Image: Auto Express]