Tata Motors plans to build Jaguar cars and Land Rover SUVs in China
By Andrew C., 27 Aug, 2010. 0 Comments
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Tata Motors's strategy for reducing costs and expanding the sales of its luxury brands in growing markets includes producing Jaguar cars and Land Rover SUVs in China. A target date has yet to be announced but CEO Carl-Peter Forster said that Tata aims for the two brands to ultimately build up to 40,000 vehicles. The Jaguar Land Rover division will be competing with luxury-vehicle makers such as BMW AG and Daimler AG. This is an opportune time as disposable incomes are on the rise in China, the world's fastest-growing major economy.
Tata Motors' Web site confirms that for the year that ended in March, China accounted for 8% of Jaguar Land Rover's 208,197 deliveries. At a press conference in London last Friday, Forster said that China is one growth market.
He also said that the company has to expand not just in China, but also in Europe, South Africa, and South America. It was in 2008 that Tata purchased Jaguar and Land from Ford Motor Co. for $2.5 billion. Tata and the recently combined U.K. luxury-vehicle division experienced a return to annual profit in the last fiscal year. This was attributed to the rise in truck and bus sales in India as well as Jaguar Land Rover's move to cut its workforce and overall spending to achieve a pretax profit.
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