Tata Motors said on Monday (15 February) that any decision to appoint a Jaguar Land Rover CEO was “still open.”

The Indian automaker, which owns loss-making JLR, earlier on Monday named Carl-Peter Forster its new group CEO following the abrupt departure of the UK division’s CEO David Smith last month.

Forster, who was previously General Motors Europe (GME) CEO, will operate out of India. A Tata Motors spokesman in Mumbai told just-auto: “Forster has been appointed group chief executive including [all subsidiaries].

“Ultimately, everyone in Tata Motors reports to him. Even if we announced a [JLR] CEO, [that appointee] would report to Forster.”

It was “too early” to talk about potential JLR strategy developments following Forster’s appointment, the spokesman said, adding the company had nothing more to add to its business plan announced last September.

Although Tata appears to be considering a new JLR CEO appointment, the timetable remains unclear.

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“We have not approved a final decision whether a JLR CEO will be announced or not,” said the Tata spokesman. “It is still open.”

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