By now, the automotive world is well aware that India’s Tata Motors is now the proud owners of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, but what was missed in the fine print was that Tata also acquired the rights to three other British marques in the package deal.
According to Automotive News, when Jaguar and Land Rover exchanged hands from Ford to Tata, so did the rights to Daimler — a nameplate affixed to the bumpers of high-end Jaguars since 1960 — Rover and Lanchester.
As you may recall, China’s SAIC purchased the assets of MG Rover in 2005, but BMW sold the rights to the Rover name to Ford to protect the Land Rover brand. SAIC now produces Rovers under the Roewe nameplate in China.
The Lanchester nameplate — which is also linked to Jaguar — hasn’t been used since 1956.
It’s unlikely that Tata will produce any vehicles under the British nameplates, but it could license their use to alleviate some of the $2.3 billion in loans it just took on.
