JLR to build Range Rover Evoque & Jaguar XJ in India

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) are to start building the Jaguar XJ and the Range Rover Evoque in India for the local market.

The 2014 Range Rover Evoque (pictured) joins the Jaguar XJ as new Indian-built cars

Jaguar Land Rover already bolt together the Land Rover Freelander and Jaguar XF in India, which explains why they are the best-selling models in JLR’s range in India.

That’s because import duties for cars in India can be as much as 170 per cent, so building cars locally make them much more competitively priced.

At the Delhi Auto Expo Ralph Speth, JLR’s CEO, confirmed plans to start building the Jaguar XJ in India (including the XJ with the 2.0 litre EcoBoost engine), despite the complexity of producing as complex a car as the XJ outside the UK.

Now, Autocar India is reporting that JLR’s production plans in India include the Range Rover Evoque (as we reported in 2011), with plans afoot to start building the 2014 Range Rover Evoque in India too to make it more competitive against locally-built rivals from Audi, BMW and Mercedes.

Despite growth of 21 per cent in india last year, Jaguar Land Rover are trailing a distant fourth behind the German trio, but although Jaguar XJ sales in India are unlikely to ever make a huge impact on Jaguar’s Indian volumes, a much cheaper, locally-built Range Rover Evoque could see significant sales.

But in case you’re wondering, JLR’s expansion in to production outside the UK is highly unlikely to affect production in the UK; the essence of JLR’s cars – and their USP – is their ‘Britishness, lose that and there’s no real USP.

So UK production of Jaguar and Land Rover looks set to increase as JLR’s success continues to grow – as it certainly will with the arrival this year of the new small Jaguar saloon, a car also likely to be built in India for the local market.