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Strong JLR sales in China boost Tata Motors' quarterly profit

BENGALURU, India — Tata Motors Ltd on Friday posted a 67.2% surge in quarterly profit. Sales at its luxury car unit, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), improved in key market China as the country led a recovery in the global automobile industry from the pandemic. The Indian carmaker had logged losses for three straight quarters as the COVID-19 pandemic dented business in several of its key markets even as it was already dealing with uncertainties around Brexit, weak demand and rising costs. The Brexit trade deal agreed upon in December has avoided the risk of tariffs on automotive parts and finished vehicles, Tata Motors said, adding that JLR remains encouraged by the Brexit trade deal. JLR sales in China jumped 20.2% on-quarter and were 19.1% higher from the year-ago period. Retail sales at the unit, which accounts for most of the company's revenue, were up 13.1% from a quarter ago, but still 9% lower than pre-pandemic levels. The company said it had saved 400 million pounds ($548.96 million) during the December quarter at JLR under Project Charge, taking the total savings to 2.2 billion pounds so far. Tata Motors has set a full-year target of saving 2.5 billion pounds. Consolidated net profit came in at 29.06 billion rupees ($398.52 million) for the third quarter, compared with a profit of 17.38 billion rupees a year earlier. It had reported a loss of 3.14 billion rupees in the previous quarter. The festive season in mid-November, during which Indians typically make big-ticket purchases, also helped overall sales. "Due to a strong festive season and a clear preference for personal mobility, the PV business posted its highest sales in last 33 quarters," Tata Motors Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Guenter Butschek said. Total revenue from operations rose 5.5% to 756.54 billion rupees.

New Land Rover Defender aces Euro crash tests

While the 2020 Land Rover Defender has not yet been crash-test by U.S. safety agencies such as NHTSA or IIHS, we do now have results for Europe's NCAP crash tests and accident-avoidance tests, where the Defender earned the top rating of five stars. The Defender model used for NCAP testing was the 110 variant with right-hand drive. The NCAP regimen includes several different crash tests: an offset front crash test into a moveable barrier with both the vehicle and the barrier traveling at 50 km/hr (31 mph), a front crash test into a full-width fixed barrier at 50 km/hr (31 mph), a side-impact crash test with a barrier traveling at 60 km/hr (37 mph) hitting the driver's door, and a side-impact test where the car strikes a pole at 32 km/hr (20 mph). The Defender's scores for the adult occupant and for a child occupant were both 85%. Additionally, the agency looks at the severity of injuries of the vehicle striking a pedestrian, taking data for a pedestrian's head hitting the hood, and their upper and lower leg being hit by the front of the vehicle. There is also testing of the vehicle's automatic emergency braking system's ability to avoiding hitting a pedestrian and a cyclist under various scenarios. The efficacy of active-safety systems for avoiding collisions with other vehicles is also tested. The Defender's score for protecting pedestrians and cyclists was 71%. The driver assists scored 79%. Results for several European-market cars were released together with those for the Defender, the most noteworthy of which was for the Honda E. The electric city car fared less well than the big Land Rover, garnering a score of four stars overall. In the same battery of test, the Honda E scored 76% for adult occupant protection, 82% for a child occupant, 62% for protecting pedestrians and cyclists, and 65% for its driver assists. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Who picks car colors and materials? Designers like Hannah Custance

As automotive journalists, we're often asked "how did you get that job?" People usually didn't even know you could do such a thing. In this 7 Questions series, we're highlighting other jobs in the automotive industry that you might not have heard about before. What do they do, how'd they get to do it and other questions about their particular corner of the car world. Slowly but surely, the automotive landscape is becoming more colorful. Look beyond the unrelentingly conservative palette of white, black and gray most buyers opt for and you'll see the increased use of exterior trim types beyond the usual chrome. There's gloss black, of course, but also other metallic finishes like gold or copper. Those can be found inside, too, where there's also an increase in colorful leathers and trims, innovative fabrics, new wood types and finishes, and greater creativity in general. So where is this change coming from? The answer is designers like Hannah Custance, the color and materials design manager for Jaguar Land Rover. Her team's latest effort is also its magnum opus, the 2022 Range Rover. Although saddled with the expectations that comes with one of the automotive industry's classic nameplates, the all-new Range Rover is also a celebration of cutting edge manufacturing and fashion-forward materials selection. We sat down with Hannah at the L.A. Auto Show to find out more about color and materials designers, how she ended up in the industry, and advice she might have for young designers out there. It has been condensed for brevity. Autoblog: What does a color and materials design manager to do?Hannah Custance: I basically look after a team of designers who design finishes for every A surface on the car. So, that could be exterior finishes. It could be interior trim materials, soft materials, hard materials, chromes, metals, woods, ceramic – that's one of the new ones – anything you can kind of touch and see is color material design. Autoblog: How early in the design process does your team become involved.Hannah: Right at the very start. In fact, we look at materials that don't have a product assigned to them or a car assigned to them. So, it takes actually a very long time for us to get materials approved and fully validated. We have to find suppliers that are willing to work in automotive and our test standards are incredibly high, some of the highest in the industry.