Tata Motors which had overtaken Jaguar and Land Rover is finally executing its plans to shift the assembly operations to the lower costs automobile markets of the world. Tata is preparing its Chikhli facility in Maharashtra India to be ready by November 2010 and start the assembly of Land Rover SUVs in India.
The plant will have an annual assembly capacity of 3500 units per year operating in single shift a day. The CKD or completely knocked down units will be imported from JLR in UK and will be assembled in the Chikhli plant in India. The first model to be rolled out will be the lowest priced Land Rover SUV called the Freelander 2.
This may result in a price drop of Freelander 2 SUV because the duty on CBU is way higher as compared to the CKD units. The present cost of Freelander 2 in India is about Rs. 35 Lakhs ex-showroom Delhi.
