Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the luxury car brand owned by Tata Motors, will introduce four new or refreshed products in India this year.
These will be among 14 products the company plans to launch globally this year.
This will take up its product offering in India to nine from current five, giving the company greater depth and variety in the rapidly growing luxury segment.
The new products will include the much-talked about Jaguar F-Type (pictured), an all-new two-seater sports vehicle and the refreshed versions of XF and XJ.
Ralf Speth (pictured), chief executive officer, JLR said the company clocked a 32% growth rate in India last year, but this year it is difficult to predict any numbers considering the rise in import duty on luxury cars from 75% to 100% in the Union Budget.
“We expect a huge growth in India and it is soon becoming very interesting and unlike China which is more or less flat,” he said.
The company is investing 2.75 billion pounds in product development, which will support the launch of eight new or refreshed models during 2013.
Speth said going forward, the company plans to share the technology and engineering of the new engine with Tata Motors that JLR is building now. The company is investing over 500 million pounds in its new engine manufacturing centre, which will be ready for production, by 2015.
This centre will support the company’s long-term strategic growth plans and will be the home for a new generation of technologically advanced, light weight 4-cylinder low emission diesel and petrol engines.
Also, the company is heavily investing in all-aluminium cars, which can also see some synergies going forward with Tata Motors, he said.
“Without the Tata Group, JLR would not have survived. They not only helped us when we needed, they also pumped in money when nobody was giving us, so we owe a lot to them,” he said.
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