Jaguar Land Rover To Downsize To Two Platforms

There are changes afoot at Tata Motors’ Jaguar/Land Rover division, since CEO David Smith departed the company and former Tata CEO Ravi Kant stepped in temporarily. Smith likely left over planned cuts to JLR’s UK production capacity, and now that former Opel boss Carl-Peter Forster and BMW exec Ralf Speth have taken the reigns [via WSJ [sub]], there’s more cost-cutting afoot. Autocar reports that Jaguar Land Rover will downsize its range of architectures, from six to two, as greater platform-sharing both within and between the two marques is set to accelerate.

Tata’s plan is to develop a single steel chassis (based on Ford’s C1 platform), that will underpin three different Freelander-badged models. One of those models will be a seven passenger variant, which will replace the Discovery. The second platform is, of course, Jaguar’s all-aluminum chassis, which currently forms the basis of the XF, XK and XJ. Jaguar will reportedly develop a narrower, more flexible version of this platform upon which it plans to build its forthcoming XE sportscar.

The real party trick will be the development of a new Range Rover flagship on the current, wide-body version of the aluminum architecture that underpins the new XJ. Autocar explains that building a Range Rover on the XJ platform is actually a relatively simple process:

While the floor and front crash structure will remain the same, the Range Rover version will get a taller front bulkhead and a modified rear bulkhead, which will accommodate folding rear seats.

The XJ’s front strut towers are cast in one piece and bonded and riveted to the front chassis legs. The Range Rover will simply get taller towers to accommodate the model’s higher ride height and much greater wheel articulation.

Ta-da! Jaguar-Land Rover’s global sales tripled last month compared to the year before [via AN [sub]], suggesting that Tata has already made the first steps in the brands’ turnaround. If Jaguar can claw its way back sales-wise while cutting costs through this kind of platform rationalization, Tata’s $2b purchase of the brand will be seen as one hell of a deal. If, on the other hand, Tata starves its luxury project of too many development funds (leave that Nano platform alone!), things could turn sour just as quickly, when the Ford-developed products inevitably lose their cool.

One major challenge: how to build the smaller XE on the same platform as the XF and sharing many components with larger Jags without rendering the XK irrelevant. On a shoestring budget, no less. Best of luck with that one, lads!