Jaguar Land Rover plans assembly of luxury cars in India

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover will consider assembling Jaguar luxury cars in India in the next 3-5 years. Land Rover assembles the Freelander at parent Tata Motors’ Pune plant in India.

JLR will first start making engines in India and the complete knock down assembly operations will start in the next 2-3 years.

“We are looking at it, but volumes in India are very small now. As we go forward, we will surely consider this,” Jaguar Global Brand Director Adrian Hallmark said. He, however, did not share any specific details such as possible location of the assembly unit or the first model to be rolled out locally.

During 2010-11 fiscal, the total sales of both Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles in India stood at 891 units compared to 242 units in the previous year.  The numbers are much lower when compared to BMW and Mercedes-Benz which are doing more the 500 units on monthly basis.

Jaguar Land Rover is currently planning to set up an engine manufacturing facility in India in order to meet the demand in the country. JLR is also planning extend the Jaguar and Land Rover portfolio which a new smaller SUV like the Audi Q3 and BMW X1. Besides this a 3 –Series competitor from the Jaguar stable and more supercars are planned.