Tata Motors Aims To Make JLR Profitable Again; Stays Mum About Nano

Despite the announcement of the Rs. 1901 crore loss faced in the first quarter of FY 2019 due to it British luxury arm Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors seems quite optimistic about its future sales performance. At the company's recently concluded Annual General Meeting (AGM), the carmaker announced it aims to deliver profits both at British marquee arm JLR as well as the domestic business. Tata Motors was also expected to reveal the fate of its entry-level car Nano, which is now only available on order, but carmaker remained silent on the future of the small car.

Tata was expected to talk about the future of the Nano at this AGM

At the company's 73rd AGM, Tata Motors chairman N Chandrasekaran told shareholders, "For the past many years JLR has been profitable while the domestic has not been. Attempts are on to make both the businesses profitable. We think we are on our way. Hopefully, we will do it this year itself." Chandrasekaran said, with regards to JLR, the major effort is on the cost side as the capex is still very high. However, the British marque is still garnering over 5 billion pounds in revenues, on a quarterly basis, and over 20 billion pounds on a yearly basis.

Talking about future strategies for the brand, the Chairman added, "JLR is embarking on a very strong cost reduction plan, we don't know what this will return, but we are working on every single way how it can be run efficiently, take cost out, produce enough operating cash flow."

Talking about the company's product strategy, Chandrasekaran said, "We have a number of models. Going forward, all the cars will move to two new architectures as we are upgrading all the models to meet the new emission norms."

As for the company electric vehicle (EV) business, the Chairman said that it will deliver the order, Tata Motors received for 5,500 EVs, as per the plan by the middle of next year. However, the company has no plans to change the specifications of the car. "Our e-cars venture is at a nascent stage. We can't give a blueprint at present. The 140-km version was launched and we have the technology for even a 300-400 km range but it is expensive," the Chairman added.