Jaguar comes to Pune

Pune’s automobile hub reached yet
another landmark on Friday when Tata Motors unveiled its Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) assembly plant at Chikhali, in Pimpri-Chinchwad.

The sports utility vehicle Land Rover Freelander 2, priced at Rs33.89 lakh (ex-showroom price in Mumbai pre-octroi), would be assembled here.

The complete knock-down kits of the vehicle would be ferried from JLR’s facility in Halewood, Liverpool (UK), to the Pune plant. It was inaugurated by Tata Motors’ vice-chairman, Ravi Kant; group executive officer and MD, Carl-Peter Forster; MD (India operations) PM Telang and JLR’s CEO, Ralph Speth.

JLR was acquired by Tata Motors in 2008. This is JLR’s first assembly plant in India and will have an employee strength of 500. Company officials were not forthcoming about the quantum of investments made to set up the Pune plant. “We have achieved significant growth since we opened our first showroom in India in 2009. There is a need to expand our operations in India since the country is an interesting location for manufacturers in India and abroad. There is an increasing demand for luxury products and the country’s strength is in its economy,” Forster said.

The Freelander 2 is available in India in two iconic variants, TD4 SE automatic and SD4 HSE automatic. The base price of the vehicles is Rs33.89 lakh (ex-showroom price in Mumbai pre-octroi).

During the last fiscal, the company sold 891 units in the country. JLR would now have dealers in 12 major cities across India.

“We shall offer the best product to our customers and expand the models of JLR,” Speth said, adding that the plant in Pune could come up in record time due to coordination between Tata Motors and JLR.

According to him, India is one of the fastest growing markets. Speth said that during the next five years JLR has planned 40 product actions globally, including
vehicles and variants.