Tata Group, the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, has approached companies including BMW Group and China's Zhejiang Geely Holding as it seeks partnerships for the beleaguered U.K. automaker, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.
Tata has said it's open to finding partners for JLR to save on costs and share the burden of investing in electric vehicles.
The deliberations were at an early stage and Tata could still approach other potential partners, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
Any tie-up with a Chinese automaker could potentially help JLR in that market, where its struggles led to a $3.9 billion writedown earlier this year.
Deeper ties between the British luxury brand and BMW would build on an existing collaboration to develop engines and electric-drive technology, though the German automaker’s former CEO, Harald Krueger, in August ruled out any equity investment.
It was not immediately clear how receptive Geely and BMW were. "There have been no talks with Tata or JLR," Geely said in a statement. BMW declined to comment, as did Tata.