Jaguar XF and Range Rover Evoque to be built in India

It’s reported that Jaguar Land Rover are planning to assemble the Jaguar XF and the Range Rover Evoque in India.

The news that Jaguar Land Rover are planning to assemble the Range Rover Evoque and Jaguar XF in India isn’t exactly a huge surprise. If anything, the surprise is it’s taken this long for them to get round to it.

Of course, this isn’t JLR’s first foray in to assembling cars in India, as the Freelander 2 is now being bolted together in Pune now the CKD facility at Halewood is up and running.

Land Rover are packaging up bits of the Freelander 2 at Halewood, crating them up and shipping them off to Pune in India where they are bolted together and sold in the local market.

Doing local sales in India by way of CKD kits and local assembly is the best way to keep the huge import duty for cars in India in check. Recent changes to import duty on CKD assembly in India means the deal isn’t as good as it was when JLR first planned the Freelander 2 assembly, but it’s a big chunk cheaper than imports of complete cars.

According to the Economic Times in India, JLR now plan to start assembly of CKD kits for the Jaguar XF and Range Rover Evoque within the next 12-18 months, which will allow JLR to compete on much more level terms with makers like Mercedes and BMW.

But all this is certainly just an interim measure. The time will come when JLR bites the bullet and starts to build cars from scratch in India, but for now the halfway house of assembling CKD kits in Pune gives JLR a good edge on pricing their cars for the Indian market, with CKD imports attracting about 70 per cent less import duty than complete cars.

Sensible move.

Source: Economic Times