Tata considering Daimler Motor Company revival

As part of the purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover, finalized in June, Tata Motors secured the rights to the UK-based Daimler Motor Company name. That opens the door for Tata's revival of the marque and a new super-luxury brand to crown its range, even as it pushes Jaguar toward new heights.

If Tata does indeed revive the Daimler name for a line of super-luxury cars, it already has a running start in the form of the Daimler Super Eight, an ultra-luxury version of the XJ that sits at the head of the current Juagar range, and is the only car built under the Daimler badge at the moment. It's still too early to tell if Daimler will be part of the company's recently announced plans to take Jaguar even further up-market as well, eclipsing the £100,000 mark, according the the UK's Times newspaper.

Bringing the marque back would mean a wider range of cars than the current Super Eight, and could provide the vehicle necessary for Jaguar's cars to break into the luxury stratosphere. One the other hand, simply rebadging, upgrading and changing some trim pieces on a Jaguar and selling it for twice as much may not be an ideal business model. It's not clear yet what direction Tata will take with the project if it decide to move forward, however.

Gottlieb Daimler, a brilliant German automotive engineer around the turn of the 20th Century, is the namesake for both the German Daimler AG and the British Daimler Motor Company, but the Coventry, England-based Daimler Motor Company owns sole rights to distribute cars under the name. Daimler AG, the German company, only owns the rights to the name for use as the title of a trading company, a trade name or a corporate name.