Growth in mind, JLR to take luxury tag to small towns

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is looking to take the kuxury tag to tier 2 cities such as Goa and Mangalore.

The company, whose India sales grew 159% at 2,288 units last fiscal year, is in the process of charting out a ten-year plan to repeat its China success story in India. It has appointed Jeremy Vincent, chief information officer and board member as president of its India operations.

The appointment follows JLR starting assembly operation in India a year ago. The company is learnt to have assembled a little over 500 units of Freelander at its Pune plant and plans to scale up operations. "The revised duty structure has forced us to take quicker decisions," said Vincent.

The government hiked import duty on cars in the Budget. It is widely speculated that JLR may start assembling Land Rover Evoque in India sometime this year. Evoque, the smaller and fuel-efficient sports utility vehicle, has been a huge success for the company, boosting its profit last fiscal yaar.

It is being sold in India at ₹47 lakh while in its home market UK it costs £29520 (₹25.64 lakh).

"One disadvantage we have when compared to our competitors is we do not have models at lower price points," said Vincent. Introduction of its SUV X1 at ₹22 lakh has propelled BMW's sales in India while Audi and Mercedes Benz plans models at the same price level.

JLR has a three-pronged strategy for India — marketing, manufacturing and sourcing, said Vincent.