Jaguar-Land Rover's Corus connection

Kenan Machado and Sumantra Barooah of CNBC-TV18's find a bit of Tatas in the Ford marquee brands.
 
Be it Jaguar or Land Rover, there is a little bit of Tata in both of them; Tata-owned steel company Corus is a major supplier of automotive steel to Ford, the owner of the two marquee brands. Both Land Rover and Jaguar use Corus' products like rear door panels, body side panels, drive shafts and radiators besides others.

Land Rover's legendary rugged capabilities could not have been possible without a strong chassis - built with Corus' tubular steel frames! As it faces new challenges of meeting strict emission norms and be more fuel efficient, Corus is helping it do so by supplying lighter steel. 

" We cannot comment on JLR, but Corus is a major supplier of steel to Ford in Europe. It is one of the top automotive steel suppliers in Europe," said B Muthuraman, MD, Tata Steel.

Tata's automotive components company Tata Autocomp Systems, or TACO, supplies auto components to Land Rover and Jaguar out of Pune, through its joint venture with Spanish auto component major Ficosa.

If that wasn't enough, there is another Tata company working with Jaguar-Land Rover-Tata Technologies. Tata's automotive and aerospace engineering and design services arm has been providing services to JLR through its UK-based arm INCAT for four years now.

In fact, 60 of INCAT's engineers have been helping Jaguar and Land Rover design software for their portfolio. It does not come as a surprise then, that Ford is in detailed negotiations with Tata Motors. After all, it seems, Ford's kids don't talk to strangers.