Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) plans to start building cars in China by the end of this year, the company owned by India’s Tata Motors announced at the Beijing Auto Show. The first model to be made in China is a Land Rover SUV, but the company didn’t say which one.
“They start to make the first prototype bodies this week, and it’s almost a miracle that’s come out of the ground in such a short period of time,” Jaguar Land Rover China president Bob Grace was quoted as saying by Bloomberg in Beijing. “It’s going to be a product from the Land Rover stable, so it’s going to be an SUV,” he added, without naming the model.
However, JLR China president said the vehicle will have an engine size of under 2 liters, which means he’s either talking about the Range Rover Evoque or the Land Rover Freelander (LR2 in the U.S.).
These two models are the only Land Rover vehicles currently on offer with a 2.0-liter engine, a turbocharged gasoline unit producing 237 hp (240PS). An upgraded version of the same engine producing 281 hp (285PS) is available exclusively on the Evoque Autobiography Dynamic.
The SUV will be built by a joint-venture between Jaguar Land Rover and Chery Automobile Co. in Changshu, with sales expected to begin by early 2015. The plant will have an initial annual production capacity of 130,000 vehicles.
JLR’s China manufacturing facility will allow the company to avoid the country’s hefty 25 percent import tariff for cars it builds locally. According to Grace, local production will help the carmaker reduce prices by about 15 percent.
By Dan Mihalascu
PHOTO GALLERY
