Jaguar Land Rover XE might be assembled in India

Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover is planning to to assemble its all-new entry level model, the XE in India, reports a national daily. According to the report, company's sources have confirmed British carmaker's plans to commence local assembly of the model in the first quarter of 2016.

The company is likely to start rolling out the locally-assembled model either from end of next calendar year or beginning of 2016,” said source. Furthermore, the company plans to sell 1,300-1,400 units per month after this new addition in its current product portfolio.

First unveiled at this year's Paris Motor Show, the Jaguar XE sedan will go on sale somewhere in 2016. With this mass-model, the company wants to avoid the CBU (Complete Build Unit) route and follow the more cost-effective CKD (Complete Knocked Down) way. This will help the iconic brand to price the XE well against its rivals- the BMW 3-Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class in the country.

In addition to this, in an e-mail response, Del Sehmar, spokesman at Jaguar Land Rover, said the company continues to explore the business case to manufacture further products from its Pune facility. “The Jaguar XE will not be launched in India until 2016 and at this stage, I cannot confirm if this car will be manufactured locally,” he said.

As India levies a duty of 110 percent on imported cars and close to 60 percent on completely knocked-down (CKD) car kits, the later comes an obvious choice to price its model competitively. Currently, JLR India assembles its Land Rover Freelander, Jaguar XF and XJ models in Pune.

Source: Live Mint