JLR invests $25 million in Lyft

InMotion , the mobility services business of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the largest automobile manufacturer in UK and part of the Tata Motors conglomerate, announces investment of $25 million (£19m) in Lyft – the ride-sharing company based in United States.

The investment is part of the Lyft’s recent round of fundraising that ended in April 2017. Investments will support expansion and technology plans for the ride-sharing company.

JLR’s InMotion ventures will get an opportunity for developing and testing its mobility services, including autonomous vehicles and the company plans to provide drivers with a fleet of Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.

InMotion’s latest investment follows its recent seed investment in SPLT, the Detroit-based digital carpool business, which works with Lyft to provide non-emergency medical transport. “Personal mobility and smart transportation is evolving and this new collaborative venture will provide a real-world platform helping us develop our connected and autonomous services,” says Sebastian Peck, MD, InMotion.

“We’re excited to join forces with Jaguar Land Rover and InMotion. Lyft envisions a future where shared mobility will transform cities and improve people’s lives. This partnership will help us achieve that ambitious goal,” says, John Zimmer, president and co-founder Lyft.

Last year, Autocar Professional reported how General Motors was leveraging its technology for testing of autonomous vehicle by forming a dedicated team and investment of $500 million in Lyft for developing an integrated network of on-demand autonomous vehicles in the US.

With this announcement JLR joins the global race of OEMs working on the autonomous vehicle segment. As per a recent survey by Morgan Stanley, the global market is bullish on penetration of fully autonomous vehicles by 2035.

Global technology firms like Tesla, Google, Apple and cab aggregators Uber, Lyft, etc are seen as to be in a better position for Auto 2.0 than traditional OEMs.