Now that Jaguar and Land Rover are no longer part of the Ford family, they can't rely on the engineers in Dearborn to provide them with technology they need to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. The new owners from Tata also don't have that expertise in house. With CO₂ emissions limits coming to Europe, Jaguar and Land Rover are in the process of hiring 600 people, many of whom will be engineers with the knowledge required to develop hybrid and electric drive systems as well as other new powertrain technology. The Land Rover LR2/Freelander will get a start-stop system this fall and a production version of the LRX concept is expected to debut in the next couple of years. Jaguar so far hasn't implemented any of these types of systems in its cars, although European models do offer diesel engines.

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With the cash-infusion that Jaguar and Land Rover are getting from their recent acquisition by Tata Motors, hybrid vehicle development for the two brands is now underway. Indeed, production hybrid vehicles are expected within the next five years. A three-liter liter diesel six cylinder engine, an enlarged version of the current 2.7 liter, and a new five-liter direct injected V8 will be used for these planned hybrids. While JLR knows it wants a hybrid, the exact system for development is still under debate. Mercedes plans to use a new transmission from supplier ZF for its upcoming S-Class, and Jaguar is said to be considering this unit as well.

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Jaguar Land Rover is starting an apprenticeship programme for 60 school-leavers looking for a career in engineering.

The 42-month Advanced Apprenticeship scheme is open to those aged 16-plus and includes a period at college; participants will earn an NVQ2 in Performing Engineering Operations, an NVQ3 in their chosen specialisation, a Technical Certificate and other key skills.

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German tuner Arden is currently working on its version of the Jaguar XF. Pricing and technical details have yet to be released but the tuner is teasing us with this teaser image.

According to this image, the Arden Jaguar XF AJ 21 will get a new front grille along with a new front grille with led fog lamps, a new front bumper and side skirts. You can also see the sexy Arden performance wheels.

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Jaguar finally changed hands this week with Indian carmaker Tata paying $2.3 billion for both the luxury brand and Land Rover. Although this seems like good value for Tata, Jaguar’s performance of late has been dire.

The carmaker sold less than 54,000 units in all of 2007, down from about 70,000 units just one year prior but, with the financial backing of Tata and the hands-of-approach to management Indian execs have in store, sales could potentially double within the next couple of years.

A reporty by the Economist predict sales numbers to approach 100,000 units in the near future thanks to the introduction of the new XF and continued sales of the X-Type, XJ and XK.

“Possible new models in the Jaguar product plan, which await the green light from Tata, could further lift this figure towards 150,000 by 2012-2013,” analysts claim. Some of the new models the analysts are talking about include the rumored F-Type and possible coupe and cabrio variants of the new XF.

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Ford has issued a press release confirming that it has sold both Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors for an approximate price of $2.3 billion, which comes under some numbers as high as $2.65 billion that were being tossed around yesterday. The rumor that Ford will contribute to pension funds associated with the brands is also true, as it confirmed that $600 million will be dropped into the retirement coffers of the brands once the deal closes. It is, of course, subject to regulatory approval in a number of countries, but the automaker expects the deal to be done by the end of the following quarter. As part of the deal, Ford will continue to supply powertrains, stampings and other unnamed vehicle components to Tata for "differing periods", as well as R&D research, environmental and platform technologies, and even accounting services, among others. Clearly the ties that bind Jaguar Land Rover to Ford are strong and will take some time to undo. Judging from the press release, it seems all parties involved, including the employees of Jaguar Land Rover, are pleased with how the deal went down, and for the time being both brands will be run business as usual during the transition period.

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Gentex Corporation, the leading supplier of automatic-dimming rearview mirrors to the worldwide automotive industry, has announced that it is supplying auto-dimming interior and exterior rearview mirrors for the 2008/2009 Jaguar XF. The XF was launched in Europe and will be introduced later in 2008 to the North American market.

The new Jaguar will feature a three-mirror auto-dimming system. Interior and exterior auto-dimming mirrors will be standard equipment on the Luxury, Premium Luxury and 4.2 trim levels in North America and standard on the two higher trim levels in other global markets. The North American model will also offer a HomeLink® - compatible garage door/entry gate opener feature on all three trim levels. All global exterior auto-diming mirrors will be available with puddle lamps and side blind zone indicators. Gentex mirrors darken automatically in response to the headlamp glare of rearward-approaching vehicles. HomeLink® is Johnson Control’s fully integrated wireless control system.

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It didn’t take long for somebody to ruin the stylish lines of the new Jaguar XF and the latest atrocity comes to us from the guys at Galpin in California. Galpin is actually the biggest Jaguar dealer in the U.S. and has been offering a number of styling and performance mods for a range of its cars for years, which includes the likes of Aston Martin and Lincoln as well.

Their new kit for the XF consists of a number of styling mods including a two-tone paint scheme, 22in color-matched Forgiato wheels, blacked-out headlights, tinted glass and a matching two-tone color scheme for the leather interior.

It appears somebody forgot to tell the designers that Jaguars are all about tradition and British heritage, but then again it’s unlikely Galpin would have designed the car this way unless there was demand for it.

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Last month, U.S. Jag dealers sold just over a thousand new cars, despite cut-rate financing. While the entire U.S. car market is going South, Jaguar's stuffy image is sending the venerable marque Hades-wise in a supersonic hand basket. The new XF midrange sedan is supposed to reverse these declining fortunes by burying memories of the bulbous, fusty, pudenda-fronted S-Type (not to mention the execrable X-Type). I grabbed an XF fresh off the transporter to see if Jag’s lobbing snowballs in Hell.

Let’s get this out of the way: the new XF’s design is a pale shadow of the C-XF concept’s drop dead gorgeous sheetmetal. We’re talking supermodel versus neighborhood bartender. The XF’s front end is a particularly boring transmogrification; it's a little weird and the snout’s portal smacks of Volvo’s blandest. The central bonnet creases are a particularly classless affectation. In fact, you could say the XF is nothing more than a Volvo in a slutty dress.

The back end almost saves the day; it looks like an Aston Martin. It's fantastic. But Ian Callum gets no props for designing the same car over (DB9) and over (V8 Vantage) and over (Jag XK coupe) and over (XF sedan). If Jaguar was going to show a scintilla of individuality, well, they could have hidden the door handles in the B- and C-pillars. As for the XF’s interior, we've all seen the boring press pictures included here. The company’s PR photographer should be fired for not doing justice to this four-wheeled shrine to automotive luxury.

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The Jaguar XKR is already one of our favorite sports-coupes, but just in case it needed some extra visual oomph, Jaguar is coming to Geneva with the new 2009 Portfolio edition. Admittedly more style than substance, the updated Portfolio package picks up where the 2008 version left off. That means an array of visual enhancements to make this one sophisticated cat, but also a few substantial upgrades to the standard XKR including bigger wheels and upgraded brakes.

Available for order now in either coupe or convertible form, the 2009 XKR Portfolio gets unique Shadow Grey metallic paint with contrasting milled aluminum side-vents, and special 20-inch "Selena" alloys barely hiding the 400mm front/350mm rear brake discs clamped by bright red six-pot calipers up front and four-pots in the rear. Inside the sumptuous leather seats come in either charcoal with cranberry twin-needle topstitching or ivory with slate stitching, offset by either oak vaneers or engine-turned aluminum with a piano-black lacquered instrument panel, and Alston headliner.

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As Jaguar faces its impending sale to India’s Tata Motors, things at the Coventry-based maker are continuing as usual - or even at a slightly quicker pace. Featuring updates to a model lineup that had stagnated under Ford’s tenure, the new direction taken by the leaping cat looks to head straight into the future.

Perhaps the most interesting model expected from Jaguar in the next few years is the F-Type (concept pictured) - a $50,000 two-seat sports car based on the XF sedan and considered the spiritual successor to the legendary E-Type. Production feasibility work has already been done on the car, and suposedly production is within the realm of serious possibility - although neither of the new cars has anything like a certain future.

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The word out of Mumbai this morning is that Tata will be going for "an outright purchase" of Jaguar and Land Rover when the ink dries on its buyout of the two automakers from Ford. It was originally assumed that Ford would still maintain a minority stake in both luxury marques, as it did with the sale of Aston Martin to Prodrive last year, but the Blue Oval boys have determined that the Tata is well equipped to take over both brands entirely. However, we're unsure if Tata has the infrastructure to supply Jag and L.R. with the necessary components, from drivetrains to switch knobs. We'll know more when the deal is sealed in the coming months.

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Jaguar’s F-Type Concept caused so much excitement back in 2000 when it was first rolled out at the Detroit Auto Show that officials decided to green light the project within that same year. This was before Jaguar’s sales slumped and the carmaker started posting multi-million dollar losses. All of a sudden, plans for an exotic flagship like the F-Type were dropped in favor of the mass market X-Type sedan.

The years went by and nothing seemed to change and then, finally, Jaguar was up for sale. Now with a new owner expected to be announced next month and a potential injection of funds on its way, hope is reignited that new and exciting Jaguar models will soon follow. Already in the works is a replacement for the XJ flagship as well as the high-performance XF-R and XK-R models, but now there’s talk of a car based on the original F-Type Concept being produced.

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India's Tata has emerged as the 'preferred bidder' for Jaguar and Land Rover, according to reports today. This status allows it access to previously confidential information on the finances of both companies...

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Tata Group, the company that has promised to build a 21st Century Model T -- a $2,500 car -- is the lead prospect to buy Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Company...

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