Land Rover Freelander 2 2011 - will be assembled in India
Tata has confirmed that Land Rover will be assembling the Freelander 2 in India from 2011.
Whenever we’ve discussed the rise and rise of JLR in the last year – such as when we waxed lyrical (ish) on the future plans of Jaguar Land Rover – we’ve always been of the opinion that Tata would be mad not to build Land Rovers – and indeed Jaguars – in India.
So it’s not a shock that Tata’s Carl-Peter Forster has confirmed that Land Rover will be churning out cars on the Subcontinent from 2011, and as far as we can work out it will be the new 2011 Freelander 2 which will be the first Land Rover to come out of an Indian factory.
But this isn’t the start of manufacturing for Land Rover in India – although that surely will happen before too long – but the assembly of CKD (Complete Knock Down) Freelanders which have been made in the UK and shipped to India for assembly. Which means not just jobs in India, but more work for Land Rover in the UK.
So what’s the point of that, you may reasonably ask? Obviously labour costs come in to the equation, but the biggest reason is harsh import duties on cars entering India – in some cases over 100%. A chunk of that cost can be mitigated by taking in UK made CKDs and having them assembled in India.
As a result of savings in duty it looks as if assembling the Freelander 2 in India could knock over 30% off the list. Which can do nothing but good for JLR and allow them to start to compete on level terms with companies like Audi – who produce the Q5 in India – and BMW who churn out a range of cars in Chennai (which is to India what the Midlands used to be to our motoring industry – and just in case you don’t know, Chennai used to be Madras).
Hugely sensible move by JLR. And from a business perspective, the sooner they bite the bullet and start manufacture proper in India, the better.
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