Tata group company Jaguar Land Rover has plans to begin assembly of sports utility vehicle Freelander2 from November 2010 at Chikhli factory in Maharashtra, previously used by Mercedes Benz.
The sources aware of the development say, Tata Motors is presently carrying out maintenance work and setting up machines on behalf of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) at Chikhli to commence the assembly around November.
A source said, “JLR has decided to start assembling vehicles with their cheapest offering in India, which is Freelander2. It wants to start production soon. So it has decided to utilise Tata Motors’ almost ready facility at Chikhli”.
When asked, a JLR spokesperson said: “It has been confirmed that JLR plans to assemble Land Rover vehicles in India, for the Indian market, from next year… we have no further information to share at this time.”
In June, JLR had declared plans to assemble Land Rover in India from next year. Presently all cars of both the British brands are imported from the UK.
Local assembly of the SUV will lead to significant fall in prices as presently very stiff import duty is charged on the vehicle. Freelander2 has a starting price of Rs 33.55 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
The company will conduct wide quality checks with the locally manufactured Freelander2 and this is one of the chief reasons for progressing the assembly of the SUV.