Four months after finalizing its joint Venture with Chinese auto major Chery Automobile, Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover has commenced a feasibility study to set up a third plant either in Pune in Maharashtra or Sanand in Gujarat to manufacture the next generation Defender with a capacity of 30,000 to 40,000 units per annum, reports said.
The new unit may also house an engine plant and will have a capacity to manufacture 50,000 units per annum, with a bulk of the vehicles manufactured in India being earmarked for exports.
This site will be a separate facility from the existing assembly plant that JLR has at Chikhale near Pune, where it currently assembles Freelander SUV.
The outcome of the feasibility study is expected by the second half of 2012 and the plant may come up by the middle of 2015.
JLR is very keen to set up a base. Different teams of the project L660 (the next generation Defender) have visited India several times. They are keen to use this as an export hub with almost 80 percent of the output to be shipped to overseas market, persons close to the development said.
India, being home to its owners, could well be JLR's third manufacturing base after the UK and China. The company is also exploring South America (Brazil) for a base.
Last fiscal, JLR sales rose by 29 percent to 3,14,433 units and with the battery of over 40 products in the next five years planned with an investment of around 7 billion pounds, JLR is expected to maintain strong growth going ahead. JLR today constitutes over 70 percent of the revenues of consolidated Tata Motors entity.
India's luxury car market, which accounts for 0.5 percent in the 2.5 million-unit car market, expanded 24,000 units in the year to December 2011 and is expected to expand to 33,000 units by the end of 2012. Assembled cars attract a lower import duty of 10-30 percent versus over 100 percent duty on imported cars. This will help the company to price its product more aggressively.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.