JustBritish

Not strictly British car content, but of interest to most British car enthusiasts. Autoweek is reporting that three special commissioners appointed Monday by a Turin, Italy, bankruptcy court have 30 days to evaluate if struggling Italian contract manufacturer Carrozzeria Bertone will have a future.

Bertone stopped volume production in December 2005 and since then has been desperately looking for new work.

In the past two months, two attempts to sell Carrozzeria Bertone failed, pushing the Turin bankruptcy court to appoint the special commissioners.

The three commissioners are:

– Antonio Bene, an engineer and former head of manufacturing at Fiat Auto.

– Stefano Ambrosini, a law professor at the University of Turin, a bankruptcy expert.

– Vincenzo Nicastro, a lawyer from Milan and a financial contracts expert.

After the three commissioners complete their findings for Carrozzeria Bertone in mid-March, the bankruptcy court will have two options:

1. Approve the commissioners’ proposal and let them run Carrozzeria Bertone for one year.

2. Decide that there is no possibility to save the company and put it in liquidation.

If a restructuring plan is approved, the commissioners could apply for the resumption of a state-funded layoff program, which ended at the end of 2007. The program temporarily paid the salaries of the Bertone workers.

Since January, all Carrozzeria Bertone workers are being paid by the company.

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Ford Motor has no plans to keep a stake in its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands, an industry source told Automotive News Europe.

Ford earlier this month picked Tata Motors as the front-runner to the purchase of the two brands. It had been thought that Ford would wish to keep a stake in Jaguar-Land Rover to protect its supply contracts for components such as engines.

“There is no need for it,” the source said. “Ford really wants to concentrate on its North American operations, that is the whole reason why it is selling Jaguar and Land Rover.”

Retaining a stake, however small, would only divert management time from the North American turnaround plan, the source said.

By John Revill, Automotive News, Europe

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The first production Lotus Elise-based, $98,000 battery-electric Tesla Roadsters will be exported to the U.S. from Lotus Engineering in March, now that Tesla Motors has received all regulatory approvals to import the first production Tesla Roadster (“P1”) for sale. Initially at a limited rate pendng the supply of a redesigned single-ratio transmission, series production is scheduled to begin on 17th March.

Transmission problems have delayed series production, and early production units will be equipped with an interim transmission that meets durability requirements but limits acceleration to 5.7 seconds from 0 to 60 mph. Tesla Motors engineers have designed a permanent solution for mass production that supports the original specification of 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds.

The planned solution is said to offer some very positive benefits. Instead of a complex two-speed transmission design, Tesla will achieve the original performance goals with a more simple one-speed unit paired with a higher rated Power Electronics Module (PEM.) The existing motor will be modified to have advanced cooling capabilities to handle the additional power. The permanent transmission unit will be engineered to handle the higher torque of the powertrain.

This should also provide better efficiency, lower weight, equal or better range, better thermal performance and quicker quarter mile acceleration due to the elimination of the need to shift gears.

Early production will proceed at a “limited rate” and then ramp up to full production when the permanent powertrain solution is production-ready later this year. The upgrade from the interim solution to the higher power, permanent solution will be provided to Tesla buyers free of charge when available later this year.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Tesla Motors had been granted a three-year exemption from federal U.S. airbag standards for the Roadster from federal regulators. Its contract manufacturer Lotus Cars and other small car manufacturers have struggled to meet a 2006 federal rule requiring air bags that vary their deployment based on a passenger’s size.

The Elise was granted an exemption from the rule in August 2006, after Tesla had decided to build the Roadster off the Elise, but while Lotus is assembling the Roadster in England, Tesla had to seek its own waiver for the car to be eligible for sales in the United States.

A statement reported by the Detroit Free Press but not on the NHTSA’s website said Tesla has had operating losses of $43 million from 2002 to 2006, and that denying the request for an airbag waiver was “likely to put Tesla out of business in the U.S. and potentially worldwide.”

The NHTSA estimated that the three-year waiver would cover 3,825 Roadsters, including 625 this year and 1,600 in each of the following two years.

For more information, go to http://www.teslamotors.com.

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According to a media report, the British luxury car maker Jaguar has shown its new models and the planned product cycle to its probable new parent company, Tata Motors.

Tata Motors was named earlier this month as the preferred bidder by the US car giant Ford for the sale of its two British luxury brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, after evaluating interests by two other suitors — India’s Mahindra and Mahindra and private equity firm OneEquity.

“We have shown Tata our new model lines and the planned product cycle,” Ian Callum, director (design), Ford Motor Company, who is responsible for the Jaguar’s new XF and XK model ranges, told Financial Times.

The Tata group company is currently holding advanced-level talks for buying Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford and a final decision is expected to be announced by the end of February.

“The two national cultures (Jaguar and Land Rover) appear to fit together very well and Tata is being very respectful about what we are doing,” Callum told the financial daily. However, he stopped short of acknowledging Tata’s purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover for an estimated $2 billion.

The executive told the newspaper that Jaguar’s management was “entirely relaxed” about the prospect of Tatas taking over the carmaker. The daily noted that Ian Cullum believed the possible takeover would allow unfettered development for Jaguar.

Tatas have pipped Indian automaker Mahindra and Mahindra as well as US-based private equity firm OneEquity, led by former Ford CEO Jacques Nasser, to attain the preferred status to hold advanced discussions for a final deal.

The Tatas, as owners of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, are already one of the top suppliers for Jaguar and Land Rover.

According to the Financial Times, Ian Cullum said there had been frequent tensions in the relationship between Jaguar and Ford, following the purchase by the latter in 1989. Ford had bought Jaguar for about $1.4 billion.

“He disclosed that, in spite of Jaguar management denials at the time, the X-Type small Jaguar — sales of which have fallen far below expectations — was essentially designed in Detroit and presented as close to a fait accompli to reluctant designers and engineers at Jaguars Whitley design centre, near the Midlands city of Coventry,” the report said..

The report pointed out that many of the problems associated with Jaguar cars, which have persistently failed to attract enough buyers and its descent into losses that hit around $600 million several years ago, lay within Jaguar itself.

It had failed to “move on” and keep pace with its major rivals, Ian Cullum added.

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