Jaguar Land Rover Starts Assembling Evoque at Tamil Nadu Plant

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is set to begin assembling the Range Rover Evoque at its new $994-million factory in Tamil Nadu on February 9.

This initiative is part of the major move in the strategy of the company to increase its production aimed at tapping into the increasing demand of luxury cars in India.

JLR will have its high end vehicles centred in the Panapakkam plant, run by Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, and in the future it is projected that this may be further increased to include the current production that is carried out in the Pune plant.

The Tamil Nadu plant will have an annual capacity of 250,000 cars and will be initially involved in the assembling of the Evoque with a projected production of less than 10,000 units to cater to the domestic market.

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Nevertheless, the facility also has a prospect of being a starting point of the exports in the future. The move to localization is also a strategy that JLR has adopted to lower its costs and provide more competitive prices to its competitors such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi.

With global sales struggling, especially in China and the US, where increased taxation and import tariffs are now putting a strain on the bottom line, India is offering a ray of hope in terms of high-end SUVs. JLR, which was sold to Tata Motors in 2008, has been producing vehicles in the country since 2011 to evade high importation taxes. The new facility will enhance the company position domestically and it will be able to compete better in the emerging luxury segment in India.