The Range Rover Evoque is set to become the fourth model in Jaguar Land Rover's portfolio to be built in India.
According to Autocar India, sources within JLR confirmed that the 2014 model year Evoque, fitted with a nine-speed ZF gearbox, will join the Jaguar XF, Jaguar XJ and Land Rover Freelander in local assembly for sale in the Indian market.
Speaking at the Delhi motor show, JLR boss Ralf Speth also confirmed that the Jaguar XJ would be built at a new plant in Chakan in the Pune district.
The UK-built Evoque attracts import taxes of around 170 per cent when sold in India, which makes it difficult for the firm to price the compact SUV competitively.
To date, JLR's most popular model in India is the Freelander, followed by base-spec versions of the XF, both built at the firm's Pimpri plant.
JLR is currently the fastest-growing luxury car maker in the Indian market, but it's volumes are still small compared to BMW, Mercedes and Audi. JLR says local assembly, dealer expansion and the launch of Jaguar's forthcoming BMW 3-series rival will narrow the gap.
Speaking to Autocar, a spokesman said the company wouldn't comment on future product plans, but that it would "continue to look at exploring opportunities for further locally assembled products".
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Darren Moss wrote:...The
WOW, that's some punitive tax. Wonder why the EU doesn't respond with a 170% tax on call centre / IT services provided from India?
It's slowly starting.
Car companies manufacture outside of their home country.
No it's not. JLR are building a £500 million engine plant in England and expanding the Solihull plant at a cost of £1.5 billion.
The production in India is to get around the high import taxes. The Germans are already manufacturing cars in India, as well as in China, Brazil and America.
pychris wrote:Marc wrote:It's
I'm well aware of who builds what and where they build it, in a past life I was a Facilities Engineer and worked for a couple of companies in South America, China and Eastern Europe helping design and build lines.
Trust me, regardless of what JLR are investing in the UK now we will start to see a (slowly at first) trickle of foreign built J's & LR's coming back over into the UK market. There's no way JLR (Tata) can continue their scale of investment whilst building products at the current costs.
How much UK value ?
Value creation in India or UK?