Dr. Tim Leverton Leaves Tata Motors

Dr. Timothy Leverton, President and Chief Technical Officer at Tata Motors has announced 'disengaging his services' from the company. An official announcement cites personal reasons for the decision.

Leverton was one of Tata's high profile managerial acquisitions back in 2010, brought in to improve the company's dwindling fortunes as it lagged far behind the competition in terms of engineering and technology. As head of the company's R&D department, it was Tim's job to bring Tata up to speed with global design and manufacturing processes and also plan towards its future.

Working out of the company's main facility in Pune, Leverton was instrumental in the development of the company's newer projects. This included cars under the Horizonext program, starting with the Zest compact-sedan and the upcoming Nexon.

His 36 years of experience in the automotive industry spanned various responsibilities in many high-profile companies. Before taking on responsibilities at Tata Motors, he was posted at the now-defunct Rover Group, moved to BMW and worked on the 2003 Rolls-Royce Phantom. He was also responsible for the world land speed record-breaking JCB Dieselmax.

Leverton had envisioned the company's all-new AMP (Advanced Modular Platform) vehicle platform which could have underpinned many of the company's future products. He was also heavily involved in the TAMO project which could have accelerated the rate of development in the company.

Mounting losses have stopped almost all of those future-proofing programs, with the company now forced to focus more on the near future. The potential Tata-VW partnership announced in March 2017 has not worked out either and the TAMO project (including the futuristic Racemo sportscar) has also been shelved. Tata will announce the replacement for Dr. Tim Leverton soon, but his departure couldn't have come at a worse time.

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