Jaguar Land Rover eyes Brazil for assembly plant

Close on the heels of starting assembly of Land Rovers in India and its efforts to start production in China, the Tata-owned British luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) looks at Brazil too for starting local assembly.

'Globally, we look at geographies where there are import tax barriers,' John Edwards, Global Brand Director, Land Rover told Hindustan Times. 'We look at countries where there is a tax structure that favours CKD (completely knocked down) operations. It is favourable in Brazil. We may consider starting assembly in Brazil too.'

Long before Tatas took over Land Rover, it had set up assembling facilities in Pakistan, Malaysia and Brazil, some of which, including the one in Brazil, were shut later. Edwards said that JLR may take a relook at Brazil operations.

Other than its three manufacturing plants in the UK, JLR has assembling plants in Turkey and Kenya. 'Turkey is by far our largest assembling plant,' he said.

Having sold 2,40,000 cars worldwide last fiscal, JLR plans to increase this number to 300,000 and is focussing on emerging markets such as China, Russia, Brazil and India for further volume growth.

'We grow our business with new models and new investment, in key developing markets such as Brazil, India, China and we will look at options for local manufacturing in Brazil,'

David Smith, former chief of JLR, was quoted as saying two years ago.

The road ahead