Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover’s long-awaited choice of Chinese partner should be known by the end of the year, Europe CO2 targets are no problem and engine sharing with the parent firm is under discussion.
“We’re absolutely in our glide path to make the decision by the end of this year… but we cannot say when we will be able to start production in China,” Ralf Speth told Reuters at the show.
He added that the timing of a production start in China depended on official approval by Chinese regulators.
Speth said he did not expect any problems achieving the European Union’s strict target for carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 despite JLR‘s line of large engine, sports, luxury and SUV models.
“We see absolutely no problem reaching the 95 grammes per kilometre. We want to reach that.”
He also said JLR currently achieves almost no synergies with its Indian parent, Tata Motors, but the two companies were talking about sharing the lower end of the British unit’s engine range [which have mostly Ford or Ford-PSA JV origins – ed].
