Automotive company Jaguar Land Rover is said to be considering to bid for the minicab operator Addison Lee.
In an attempt to combat the ‘challenge’ to car ownership from Uber and driverless vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) have been looking into the acquisition of Addison Lee.
According to The Telegraph Addison Lee’s owner, US private equity firm Carlyle Group, has hired Bank of America and Rothschild to try to sell the business with a target price of between £300m and £500m.
JLR is among other car manufacturers, tech players and private equity firms looking at whether to bid in the hopes that the sale would boost the company’s ‘slump’ in demand for diesel vehicles and falling car sales in China that contributed to it booking a £3.4 billion loss, states The Telegraph.
JLR is already working with Addison Lee in a Government-funded autonomous vehicle research project called ServCity. This aims to trial driverless cars within three years, with tests in London and the Midlands.
The challenges big car makers face include self-driving technology and electric vehicles, which JLR has supposedly lagged in developing.
Advanced electric vehicles which do not need a driver could also upend traditional vehicle ownership models. Instead of owning a car and facing fuel, maintenance and tax bills, more people could choose to summon a vehicle that fits their needs, potentially for just a single journey.
Last year JLR landed a deal to supply Waymo, Google’s self-driving car division, with up to 20,000 battery-powered Jaguar I-Pace cars.
Backed by the financial firepower of its web-search parent, Waymo is seen as one of the front-runners in the development of self-driving technology. Jaguar has said the I-Paces will be supplied with “production ready” self-driving technology, reports The Telegraph.
