Tata Motors The Reason For Jaguar Land Rover's Cool Seamless Door Handles

British automaker Jaguar Land Rover's latest vehicles all seem to be incorporating a cool new design feature in the form of flush door handles. These seamless door handles give the sides of Jaguar and Land Rover's vehicles a smooth look which looks extremely cool. Now a new report by Jalopnik has revealed the reason behind those cool-looking door handles is JLR's owners and Indian automotive giant Tata Motors.

Gerry McGovern, Land Rover's Design director told Jalopnik at a media presentation for the new Range Rover Evoque last week in the US, that the flush door handles were requested by Tata Motors. McGovern told the publication that the fancy looking seamless door handles actually took four years to bring to production.

New vehicles from Jaguar and Land Rover sport what appears to be the second generation of the flush door handles that were first seen on the I-Pace concept car back in 2016. However, integrated door handles similar to the present day units were first seen on Jaguar's F-Type sports car which was revealed way back in 2013. This means that the request for the flush door handles from Tata Motors must have come not too soon after the Indian automotive giant purchased Jaguar and Land Rover from American automaker Ford back in June 2008.

The reason for the long development period is the fact that the door handles had to work in extreme conditions like the freezing cold. The door handles had to shut despite freezing temperatures outside during harsh winters, something that is common in JLR's home base of the United Kingdom.

Thankfully, the long period of development paid off as the flush door handles can now be seen on multiple models from both Jaguar and Land Rover today including the I-pace electric SUV that will be arriving in India next year. The Jaguar I-Pace will be the first premium all-electric SUV to officially launch in India when it arrives next year.

The Jaguar I-Pace is powered by a pair of electric motors which push out 394.5bhp and 696Nm of torque. This allows the I-Pace to sprint form 0-100km/h in just 4.8 seconds. The I-Pace's 90kWh battery pack has a claimed range of 467 kilometres on a single charge.