Jaguar & Land Rover eschew Detroit for Delhi

Jaguar and Land Rover are to pass on the Detroit Motor Show in January in favour of showing their cars at the Delhi Motor Show.

Although Jaguar Land Rover has revealed that it won’t be exhibiting at the 2012 Detroit Motor Show in January – instead it will be out in force at the Delhi Motor Show – it’s really not a huge deal.

Motor Show exhibiting is an expensive business, and despite JLR’s strong sales, costs are a factor. As is the Los Angeles Motor Show – which takes place later this month – just weeks before the Detroit Motor Show in January.

So American petrolheads get to see Jaguar and Land Rover’s latest cars, just on the West Coast in November instead of the East Coast in January.

There’s also the consideration that we don’t expect either Jaguar or Land Rover to have anything new to show in the next month or two, and we’ll probably have to wait until Geneva in the Spring for more new Jaguar or Land Rovers to arrive.

And finally there’s the importance of the Indian car market to consider.

No one can be in any doubt that a country of one billion souls, and a rising middle class with money to spend, is a key market for any car maker.

Land Rover are already bolting together Freelander 2 CKD kits at a facility in Pune for the Indian market, and we expect both the Jaguar XF and the Range Rover Evoque to follow suit and arrive in India as CKD kits within the next year or so.

So to turn up twice in the US – at LA and Detroit – in the space of a few weeks seems a bit pointless, when a market that has the potential to be far bigger than the US beckons in India. Much better to put on one belting show in Delhi than two lower key outings split between Delhi and Detroit.

The fact that Indian conglomerate Tata own JLR may be a factor, but it’s a business decision we wouldn’t be surprised to see other car makers reaching.