DREAMER, DOER

Tata Group will keep benefitting from the many systems that Ratan Tata built

- NACHIKET KELKAR

TATA MOTORS WILL launch Avinya, its new premium electric vehicle platform, next year. The company is already the largest electric car maker in India, with a market share of around 70 per cent, and Avinya is expected to cement this position. Ratan Tata was not directly involved in the development of the platform and will not see a car made on it, but he was probably the biggest reason it happened, as Avinya is based on Jaguar Land Rover’s electrified modular architecture.

Tata acquired the marquee British car brands in 2008. Till then a maker of small mass-market cars, Tata Motors was instantly elevated to the league of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and the likes. More importantly, it brought access to technology, something that Tata Motors keeps benefitting from.

Many had questioned Tata’s buyout of JLR at the time, given it was loss-making and put a huge debt burden on Tata Motors. But JLR turned around soon and now contributes a major chunk of the profits of Tata Motors. “Ratan was a leader of vision and integrity and proved to be an excellent steward of Jaguar and Land Rover,” said Bill Ford, chairman of Ford Motor Company which sold JLR to Tata, in his tribute. Ratan Tata was 86 when he died on October 9 in Mumbai.