Q4 2019 (Fiscal Year Q3) Financial Results

• JLR reported 2019 retail sales of 557,706 cars, down (5.9)% versus 2018 but focused on the performance in Q4 and December 2019, both of which improved over prior year, mainly driven by China and the USA. (JLR)
• Tata Motors (including JLR) reported Q4 2019 (fiscal Q3) revenue of 716.8 billion INR (about $10.1 billion), down (7)% on a year-over-year basis. Volumes fell (12)% to 275,907 units. Happily, EBIT of 16.8 billion INR (about $240 million) was much improved from a prior year loss as improvements at JLR more than offset losses on Tata-branded vehicles. (Tata)
• JLR reported Q4 2019 (fiscal year Q3) revenues of £6.4 billion, up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis and PBT of £318 million, from a loss in the prior year. The company credited its “Project Charge” program for delivering cost savings and said it will now enact “Project Charge +” to save even more. (JLR)

December

• Tata unveiled the Nexon, a battery-powered B-sized SUV. Despite the seemingly small 30 kWh pack, Tata claims over 300 km of range (as measured in undefined internal testing). (Tata)
• JLR acquired Bowler, a UK firm that modifies cars for extreme off-road driving, out of administration. (JLR)
• An Indian tribunal ordered holding company Tata Sons to reinstate ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry. (Reuters)
• Tata Motors CEO Butschek says there won’t be any more layoffs in India because he wants the company to have capacity ready when the economy rebounds, as he expects it to do soon. (Business Standard)
• Land Rover is reportedly working on two new vehicles to enter the portfolio sometime after 2021 -- a high end all-electric SUV that might be branded as a Defender, and a low-end Land Rover sharing many components with the Tata Harrier and (shock horror) possibly available as front wheel drive only. (Autocar)
• Invested in self-driving vehicle developer Apex.ai. (JLR)
• Unveiled a major facelift for the F-Type. (JLR)
• Hot on the heels of Audi, Jaguar has told I-Pace customers that they will be treated to improvements that will boost the range. In Jaguar’s case, only software changes (delivered over the air) are required. (Electrek)

November

• Revealed an updated version of the F-Type sports car. (Jaguar)
• JLR said all vehicles now being sold are connected and capable of over the air updates. Some owners of recently purchased cars will receive free upgrades to bring their vehicles up to the latest standard. (JLR)
• JLR’s boss says the company can survive alone, but he would like to partner on some components. Although the company firmly believes in the future of the electric car, it sees customer adoption as slower than hoped. (Reuters)
• Tata is rumoured to have explored linking up with BMW and Geely to share parts (and maybe even entire models) with JLR in a bid to gain scale. Geely denied there had been any discussions. (Economic Times of India)
• JLR believe that printed electronics could save 60% of the weight of traditional wiring harnesses. (JLR)

October

• Tata Sons is increasing its share in Tata Motors to 43.73%. (Economic Times of India)
• Tata’s chairman said JLR would not be sold and that although he was interested in new partnerships, Tata wouldn’t give up operational control because automotive was a core business and his job is to “run companies”. (Live Mint)

Q3 2019 (Fiscal Year Q2) Financial Results

• Tata (including JLR) reported Q3 2019 (fiscal Q2) revenue of 65,432 cr INR (about $9.2 billion) and PBT of 621 cr INR (about $88 million). (Tata)
• JLR reported Q3 2019 (fiscal Q2) revenue of £6.1 billion, up 8% on a year-over-year basis. Pre tax profit was £156 million. JLR claim to have made £162 million of year over year structural cost reductions and a £285 million lower investment spending. (JLR)

September

• Here is what JLR’s VC team are telling the executives about micro mobility players. (JLR)
• Executives say that a souped-up performance version of the I-Pace is on the cars. (Autocar)
• JLR has reportedly told suppliers that it plans to cut production at the Halewood plant. (Coventry Telegraph)
• JLR is stopping production for the first week of November, just after the (currently) scheduled Brexit date of 31^st (Reuters)
• JLR’s CEO says the firm has a 40-strong team working on nothing but logistics for post-Brexit UK factories however his comments suggested that JLR has taken no actions to deal with Brexit permanently increasing raw material inventories (because of customs delays). (Autocar)
• JLR participated in self-driving vehicle service Voyage’s $31 million fund raising. (JLR)
• Unveiled the new Defender. With the re-imagining of the vehicle, JLR have taken the opportunity to hike the technology level of the car -- and the price. (JLR)
• JLR will use Blackberry’s software for future vehicles and has engaged the firm’s consulting arm to help with developing artificial intelligence and cyber security. (Blackberry)

August

• Rumoured to have called off a plan to issue $1.5 billion in debt because of insufficient interest. (Live Mint)
• JLR has reportedly reduced the size of the new standard showrooms it is telling dealers to create after suffering pushback because of the investments involved. Rather than space for 16 cars to be on display, the requirement will only be eight cars. (Automotive Manager)
• Tata thinks that a range of 200km - 250km is ideal for electric cars in India and thinks that customers might be prepared to pay a price premium of up to 25% over a car with a combustion engine. (Live Mint)
• Standard & Poors maintained Tata’s credit rating but continued to worry about the firm’s outlook, citing cash burn at JLR as its biggest concern. (Economic Times of India)
• JLR plans to create a new UK parts distribution hub to take the place of 10 different sites. (Business Live)
• Reporters speculated that rumoured new small SUVs for Jaguar might be built on the BMW platform that underpins Mini and 1-Series. (Autocar)

July

• Tata Motors’s chairman said partnerships are “the only way” to cope with the additional capital spending demands of mobility services and electrification, and that Tata was looking at both tactical and strategic options. (Autocar)
• Tata is setting up a 300 station charging network in India with Tata Power. Planned charging speeds are modest, with power levels between 15 kW - 50 kW planned. (Economic Times of India)
• Feedback from US customers suggest that Jaguar dealers are offering firesale prices on electric I-Pace models, despite the car having only recently launched. (Inside EVs)
• JLR received a £500m loan guarantee from the UK government to assist electric vehicle development. The guarantee will enable JLR to receive a low interest rate on £625 million of commercial loans it intends to raise. (JLR)
• JLR said it would like to produce more cars and SUVs in India but effective tax rates of around 50%, including VAT and surcharges, are restricting the market size. (Economic Times of India)
• Rumoured to be finalising a deal to buy four and six cylinder engines from BMW in preference to in-house units so that JLR can re-direct development spending to electric vehicles. (Autocar) An earlier rumour was that BMW might supply JLR with V8 engines.
• Executives reportedly told staff that the Halewood plant will soon lose its third shift. (Liverpool Echo)
• Confirmed plans for an all-electric replacement for the XJ large saloon at the Castle Bromwich, UK, factory and a “range” of other electric products. Whilst making the announcement, JLR’s CEO said that unless battery factories are built in the UK, car plants will have to be relocated to wherever they are made (JLR)

Q2 2019 (Fiscal Year Q1) Financial Results

• JLR sold 128,615 cars in April to June 2019 (fiscal Q1), a drop of (11.6)% on prior year. (JLR)

June

• Reportedly planning to confirm production of an all-electric XJ replacement in Castle Bromwich, UK. (Telegraph)
• Unsure whether there will be any potential to price for Bharat Stage VI emissions standards in India (due to be implemented from April 2020 onwards) to recover technology costs. (Autocar)
• JLR wants UK dealers to have an average of around 900 sales per site (including fleet) annually once it has completed a program to reduce dealer numbers to about 125. (Automotive Manager)
• Moody’s downgraded Tata Motor’s debt rating, with a negative outlook. (Economic Times of India)
• JLR’s CEO said the brands are not for sale, scotching recent rumours of interest from PSA. (Auto Express)
• Recalling I-Pace electric vehicles to fix problems with the regenerative braking. (Inside EVs)
• Announced a collaboration with BMW on next generation electric drives, based on the unit that will debut in the BMW iX3 SUV. Both companies will independently produce drives from common designs. (JLR)
• JLR’s design chief is moving on professionally, but will remain as a consultant. (JLR)

May

• JLR’s CFO is leaving, to be replaced by the chief transformation officer. (JLR)
• Started talks with factory workers in Coventry about job losses when production of the XJ ends in the summer. JLR confirmed that the nameplate will continue. (Birmingham Mail)
• JLR’s CEO said he hadn’t been involved in any discussions with PSA about a sale but that he couldn’t speak for Tata because he is just “a normal employee in this empire”. (Bloomberg)
• Although the economies of scale from sharing vehicle components are attractive JLR’s CEO says that, if they mean giving up control of key product or strategy elements, they may not be worthwhile. (Bloomberg)
• After the leaking of a document purporting to show how JLR would be integrated into PSA post-sale, PSA said it was open minded on the move but Tata immediately flatly denied that a sale was contemplated. (Reuters)
• JLR CEO Ralph Speth said the business had the full support of Tata but stopped short of an outright denial that a partial or outright sale was under consideration. He is conscious of supply constraints on batteries for electric cars and believes the cost will rise over the next two to three years. (Automotive News)
• Confirmed that the new Defender will be built in Slovakia (at the end of a tedious press release about the vehicle’s development programme). (JLR)

April

• JLR is reportedly interested in private car hire firm Addison Lee (along with other, un-named carmakers). The likely price tag is in the £300 million-range. (Sunday Telegraph)
• Exploring ways to pay drivers with vouchers redeemable for coffee and parking if they agree to share data about driving habits and road conditions. The vouchers would be stored as a cryptocurrency. (JLR)
• Tata says it is no longer cost effective to develop diesel engines for small vehicles in India because the technology to comply with new emissions rules will make the vehicle too expensive for consumers. (The Economic Times)
• JLR’s design director hates large touch screens (12” or so) in cars, revealing that he frequently changes the seat or mirror locations whilst driving at 80 miles per hour. (Detroit News)

Q1 2019 (FY Fiscal Year 2018/19) Financial Results

• Reported full year financial results for the year ending March 2019. Revenue of 301 KCr (about $43 billion) rose 3.7% on a year-over-year basis, JLR’s revenue fell (6.1)% with Tata Motors up 20.3%. There was a full year loss of (1.720) KCr but JLR had some good news: 4^th quarter free cash flow of £1.4 billion. (Tata)

March

• JLR’s North American CEO is unsure of how successful the I-Pace electric car will be (although he likes the car) and sees residual values as a major concern saying that they undermine competitive leasing deals. (CNBC)
• JLR confirmed it had made a tidy sum by investing in Lyft at $32.15 per share. (JLR)
• JLR won a Chinese court battle to stop JMC’s Landwind brand producing the X7, a vehicle mightily similar in size, form and detailing to the Evoque. (The Guardian)
• JLR will recall 44,000 cars in the UK that emit more CO2 than they are should. (BBC)
• Postponed a planned £500 million investment in a new R&D campus for JLR. (Solihull Observer)

February

• Reportedly exploring a sale of a partial stake in JLR to raise cash. Tata spokespeople denied it. (Bloomberg)
• Sources told the BBC that JLR was about to make a major investment in UK manufacturing. The lack of any detail suggested it was the work of PR people or politicians rather than well-informed yet loose-lipped insiders. (BBC)
• Unveiled a facelifted XE saloon (the second such update). The main focus of the redesign was the front and the interior, which now features an array of digital displays. (JLR)
• JLR’s InMotion fund participated in a further investment round for usage-based insurer ByMiles. (JLR)
• Unveiled a new inline six cylinder engine, initially available as a high performance gasoline mild hybrid. (JLR)
• JLR’s treasurer said the firm was looking for ways to access cash but that it would stay away from unsecured bonds because market conditions are “unfavourable”. (Detroit News)
• Believes that even with a no deal Brexit, a negotiated settlement will happen “sooner or later” and admitted it was “uncertain” whether the company could pass on tariffs in pricing to customers. (Seeking Alpha)

January

• No longer planning a limited edition, mega expensive, coupe version of the Range Rover. (Motor 1)
• JLR factories will close from 8^th April to 12^th April as a precaution against post-Brexit disruption. (JLR)
• JLR claimed the I-Pace program took only three years. This contradicts conventional industry wisdom and Jaguar’s puff piece documentary into the program “Jaguar: Going Electric” which says the project began in 2014 (02:35 in for Amazon Prime subscribers). (Autocar)
• Invested in roadside assistance firm Urgent.ly. (Porsche)
• Confirming earlier rumours, JLR announced plans to shed about 4,500 jobs, hoping to save over £1 billion (of which it says £500 million is already on the way). JLR will start making electric motors (at the Wolverhampton engine plant) and assembling battery packs at a new site in Hams Hall (where BMW have an engine factory). (JLR)
• Recalling 68,828 JLR vehicles in China to fix problems with the crankshaft bearings. (Xinhua)
• The R&D head of Tata Technologies described in an interview how the company approaches material choice for optimum weight reduction and cost optimisation. (Autocar)