Tata Motors, which owns Jaguar and Land Rover has recently opened an assembly plant in India for assembling the popular SUV Freelander 2 in India in Pune in May 2011. After the assembly of the Freelander 2 Stared in India, its prices were cut by about 14% owing to the savings in excise and taxes. This price cut has given a boost to the value proposition of the JLR SUVs in India and on the same lines, Tata is now planning to add more SUVs from Jaguar and Land Rover to be assembled in India. There is no final decision on it as it is under consideration as of now. Tata is also planning to go for some level of localization to make the SUVs even more price completive for Indian markets.
Apart from India, China is also one of the Major markets which makes financial sense to set up an assembly plant for the Tatas for JLR. As per and official statement by Ratan Tata:
Assembly operations in India have commenced for the Land Rover Freelander. Assembly of other Land Rover products are also under consideration. The company is also considering various options for assembly and localization of selected products in China, which has become an important market for the company.
Which clearly states the intention of Tata Motors going forward. Manufacturing of vehicles in India and China has a big price advantage over importing these cars from other countries because of the production costs and tax structures involved. This move will help make India more visible on the map of global automobile market.
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