Ford Motor Company will not announce a deal to sell Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors this week, after all. The two parties are moving extra-carefully, perhaps not as smoothly as it once appeared. Asked whether he is confident a deal will go through, Tata Group chief and scion Rattan Tata said, "I'm reasonably confident." He said it would be inappropriate to make further comment on the talks with Ford. Tata's plan is to return to India by the end of the day, so we may be weeks off before an announcement.
Rattan Tata came to Geneva this week to unveil his $2,500 Nano (100,000 rupees, or 1,700 euros), which had already made its debut at an Indian event. It was Tata Motors' 11th appearance at the Geneva show, and its most popular. Journalists crowded Tata's stand for the first time since the company showed the Indica here. Tata said he thought it would be fitting to display the Nano at Geneva, even though there are no plans to bring the diminutive five-door hatchback to Europe.
Owning Jaguar and Land Rover would give Tata, a $50-billion conglomerate, the global presence in the automotive market that it so obviously wants. Or as a Tata promotional video before the Nano unveiling put it, "there are more than 4 million Tatas on the road, and we believe the journey has just begun."