Wednesday 11th March 2009

Taxpayer to Fund LRX

Land Rover secure financial backing from the government

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Land Rover is to get a £27m taxpayer injection to help it develop the LRX concept for production, according to a statement today by business secretary Peter Mandelson.

The proposed payment, which needs to be agreed by the EU, is a small part of the £400m that Land Rover’s Indian owner Tata says it needs to put the new mini-Range Rover into production. However the government backing for the project is designed to help ensure the new model is built at Halewood, says the official statement.

The new model will be the smallest, lightest and most efficient that Land Rover has ever produced. Although based on the LRX concept the production version will have five doors and a hybrid version is also mooted.

The grant was applied for many months ago, according to reports, and is unrelated to the industry’s total claim for a £2.3n government support package that is also being discussed by industry representatives in London today.

[Mission Drift]

Great, I'm a taxpayer I'll take a free one, I am paying for the development un' all.

[rockystarr]

For Gods sake its not even a british company any more!

[noogie]

I'm not a green eco basher, but I don't really think the taxpayer should be funding a car like this. I'm not falling for the stupid 'oh, but we're doing a hybrid version' crap either, it's a great spin for the car companies and if it means you can drive a nice car into London for free or cheaper or whatever, then great, but it's not the future. All this money should be ploughed into building new infrastructure, and actually investing in the future.

[M5B]

i thought the whole idea of Govt funding was to save jobs not to fund new developments... friends in high places me thinks... what a waste of good tax-payers money

[vincenz]

M5B said:

i thought the whole idea of Govt funding was to save jobs not to fund new developments... friends in high places me thinks... what a waste of good tax-payers money

So instead you would prefer the company to go bankrupt and 15000 and the associated jobs on the dole?

Without doing the maths for you a £27m development far out weights mass unemployment

[twin sparky]

Well you might argue that funding new development saves the long term future of the company?

IMO Paying LR to produce the same models or re-hashed versions (a la Rover) for the next 10 years, just prolongs the inevitable

[M5B]

I dont see the word bankruptcy anywhere in the article... tata wants this new money to develop a new car, not to save the company

Edited by M5B on Wednesday 11th March 13:29

[vincenz]

M5B said:

I dont see the word bankruptcy anywhere in the article... tata wants this new money to develop a new car, not to save the company

Edited by M5B on Wednesday 11th March 13:29

I didnt imply the article mentioned bankruptcy, however from what has been reported if the company don't develop new models then we will have an MG rover scenario with them rebadging/branding ageing models, rather than planning for the future

[NATM5]

Er WHY....................? Land Rover make nothing but overpriced rubbish. Ford had the foresight to sell Land Rover............because it had worked out it had a very limited future. It didnt take a rocket scientist with a crystal ball to notice that land Rover cars are not green. All they make are 4X4 's and contrary to what the advert may tell you they are not the best 4x4xfar. ( in africa they use nissans and in the desert they use land cruisers/chevy tahoes......because if it breaks down there is a good chance youll get eaten or die . Given Land Rovers reputation for reliability i wouldnt touch one with yours. ) On reliability i have first hand experience. I went to the land rover factory and what a shock the discovery 3 i was driving on their course broke down .( no really it did )Furthermore the rot started with oil going to $140 a barrel . They are also massively overpriced and the quality although better is still well below that of a Landcruiser/x5.
Furthermore the govt has bowed to the pressure from the greens and has raised road tax to the hilt to try and stop us driving these things around. So its no surprises then that they cant sell any. Now they want a handout to develop some other crap product no one is going to want. Er ,.............no thanks. Bugger off to your parent company and get them to pay. I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in helpng this company out at all. Basically if Land rovers were as good as they all would like us to believe they would have no trouble selling any. Unfortunately for them we are not all as stupid as they would like us to be.
Sorry yet again Land Rover is doing the same thing all british car makers seem to have done from day 1 .........Great Idea..............appaling execution........( and that applies to some great cars that came out of Leyland/tvr/jaguar/rover etc etc. Its the same old problem.

Regards

Nat.

[PhantomPH]

Can't wait for the LRX. I intend being first in the queue if it looks as good as it looks in the prototype shots.

P~

[Stuart J]

Tatta have screwed the british steel Industry after they bought corus, now they are screwing the tax payer to subsidise their car division. They are a multi million pound company, they should be made to stand on their own. If they cant afford Landrover then make them sell it to a UK company & we can back that.

I sometimes wish there wasnt an Election coming & then the Government just "might" make some hard nosed decisions rather than focus on self interest

[Collaudatore]

What %age of the company is now owned by the British tax-payer for this £27m?

[Stuart J]

Collaudatore said:

What %age of the company is now owned by the British tax-payer for this £27m?

A big round zero !

Still I guess its cheap curries at No 10 for a while (please take as a joke, its not a racist comment)

Edited by Stuart J on Wednesday 11th March 13:47

[Nostrils]

Goodbye to OUR millions then. Tata are supposedly one of the richest companies in the world, so why they cannot fund Land Rover themselves I do not know. Tata are making redundancies around the world, partly because of the crunch but partly because it would not be usual in the present climate.

If the UK fund loans, then the UK want something back, not just the money but a guarentee of another kind, shares, stock because money can easily disappears

[Stuart J]

Nostrils said:

Goodbye to OUR millions then. Tata are supposedly one of the richest companies in the world, so why they cannot fund Land Rover themselves I do not know. Tata are making redundancies around the world, partly because of the crunch but partly because it would not be usual in the present climate.

If the UK fund loans, then the UK want something back, not just the money but a guarentee of another kind, shares, stock because money can easily disappears

Since Tata bought corus they have forced up the price of steel, their solution in the present hard times is to reduce production to hold prices just when many british companies need cheaper raw materials to stand a chance, I bet their inflated prices reap more than 27 million a year into the company coffers !

[joe708]

omg i cannot believe this!
we as a country are paying for a car to be built! its just a load of rubbish!!!!!!
how many more fk ups can the government make?

[cvegas]

Car companies throughout the world are getting help from their Governments. Our Government has been way to slow so far to support our car industry. It is better than paying unmployment benefit to highly skilled workers.

[Saag Aloo]

Next thing Mittal will be asking for some money for the development of QPR or the whole team lose their jobs...

[ploz]

The price of steel was forced up by Chinese demand - which is now in freefall. So TATA don't have money to burn at the moment. LR used to be in a bit of a niche market, but once every Tom, Dick and Harry started building (better) Range Rover clones, its raison d'etre has been eroded. They should go for new models, but maybe not in the same 4x4 soft road market - back to basics low volume, low cost working vehicles might be the way - even the British Army has good alternatives to Defenders now!

[dipstic]

vincenz said:

M5B said:

i thought the whole idea of Govt funding was to save jobs not to fund new developments... friends in high places me thinks... what a waste of good tax-payers money

So instead you would prefer the company to go bankrupt and 15000 and the associated jobs on the dole?

Without doing the maths for you a £27m development far out weights mass unemployment

Perhaps making something for the masses would be a better use of the money