Tata Motors is saying “tata” to R&D operations in India and putting £30M toward an R&D center in the UK. The company already stands tall in the market, especially when you consider the huge investment in billboard advertising, branding and other marketing labels available from taxis to buses and trucks worldwide.
The £30M investment will go toward the £100M National Automotive Innovation Campus (NAIC) in Coventry, combining with Jaguar Land Rover and Warwick University’s Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG). The new center is expected to open in 2016 and will bring jobs to 900 engineers and scientists.
Tata Motors, strongly synonymous in the Indian economy, has been in the UK industry from as early as the 19th century, and is considered one of the largest overseas investors in the UK economy. This move comes as a surprise considering the fact that the UK has always been Tata’s home for premium automobile brands. The contrast here lies in the fact that this move will see R&D transferred to the UK, including for models like the Indica and the Nano, which have been successfully marketed as the world’s cheapest production cars, specifically designed for Southeast Asia, South America and Africa.
However, through the director of the European Technical Centre; Nick Fell, the company insists that the R&D efforts are separate from that of Jaguar Land Rover, and that the decision to shift to the UK was mainly because of the world-class engineers in the automotive industry.
