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Jaguar Land Rover might buy another luxury brand that it doesn't need

It seems that Jaguar Land Rover may be getting bigger in the near future. According to Bloomberg, the company is looking at acquiring some tech companies, and possibly yet another luxury car brand, provided that it fits with the current lineup of cars. On the surface, this makes some sense since Bloomberg reports that a whopping 78 percent of Tata Motors' revenue comes from luxury brands. And of course, any kind of tech acquisition could be useful considering the rapid development of electric and autonomous vehicles. But dig a little deeper, and a possible luxury brand acquisition just doesn't make sense for Jaguar Land Rover. The main reason for this is that the Jaguar and Land Rover brands have the luxury market thoroughly covered. Both brands offer full luxury lines from entry-level to high-end ( Discovery Sport to Range Rover on the Land Rover side, and XE to XJ on the Jaguar side). They also cater to every kind of luxury, from sporty vehicles such as the F-Type and SVR Land Rovers, to cushy luxury machines such as the XJ and Range Rover. So whether the company is competing with BMW or Mercedes, Jaguar and Land Rover have the bases covered. There aren't any other typical luxury brands that would actually add anything to the current lineup. In fact, adding another conventional luxury brand could actually result in the new brand poaching existing Jaguar and Land Rover buyers, rather than picking up new ones. What would make more sense for Jaguar Land Rover would be to pick up either a more mainstream brand, or an ultra-luxury marque. Neither Jaguar nor Land Rover has something that competes directly with the likes of Ford or Toyota in the mainstream game, or Rolls-Royce or Bentley at the top of the luxury heap. Picking up a brand in one of these segments would allow JLR and Tata Motors to actually expand offerings and pick up more sales, rather than having an internal competitor. What path would be ideal? Probably going even farther upmarket. Supercar makers and ultra-luxury brands continue to sell well, and there's the potential for significant profit by layering on features and content to existing platforms. Perhaps the best possibility for a high-end complement to Jaguar Land Rover would be Aston Martin. Not only does it have a strong reputation and line-up, it also could handle both supercars and luxury sedans, thanks to its Lagonda sub brand. Of course it would require Aston Martin to be receptive to a purchase.

More Jaguar F-Pace details revealed [w/video]

The Jaguar F-Pace will make its full debut on September 15 at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show. But for folks like us that want every detail about the compact crossover ahead of time, Jaguar is continuing the ongoing tease. This time, the company puts the emphasis on the CUV's suspension development and includes a video to prove that it works. The F-Pace is promising to be quite a crisp handler with a double-wishbone layout for the front suspension and an integral link setup at the rear. Cornering is further enhanced by an all-wheel-drive system that features torque vectoring adapted from the F-Type. Stopping shouldn't be an issue either because the brakes are also based on the units from the sports car. In addition, the company is making the lofty promise that crossover's electric power-assisted power steering offers "greater feedback and control than hydraulic systems." Production of the crossover should get underway at the Solihull, UK, factory soon because the F-Pace hits the market in 2016. The powertrain range is expected to include the new Ingenium four-cylinder engine family and the brand's fantastic sounding, supercharged V6. All the details should be officially revealed in Frankfurt, though. Until then, give the F-Pace a listen in the clip below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. JAGUAR F-PACE: THE ULTIMATE PRACTICAL JAGUAR SPORTS CAR 26/08/15 Double wishbone front and Integral Link rear suspension enable exceptional handling and ride comfort Outstanding agility delivered by F-TYPE-derived technologies including Torque Vectoring2 Electric power-assisted steering designed to give immediate response and connected feel Debuting at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September On sale in 2016 (MAHWAH, N.J.) - August 25, 2015 - Featuring sports-car derived chassis systems and evaluated on the same demanding roads as all other Jaguar vehicles, the new F-PACE will bring new levels of dynamic ability to the brand when it goes on sale in 2016, after debuting at the Frankfurt Motor Show this September. The new F-PACE will reward drivers and passengers alike with a blend of agility and comfort that is unique to the small performance SUV segment; making it the most practical Jaguar sports car ever.

The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.