A slow but gradual drift towards SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles) can be seen, and almost all major auto companies are willing to tap this market potential. Likes of Renault Duster and Ford EcoSport have recorded a decent sales. Mahindra Scorpio is back on track by snitching higher sales in the months of August and July as compared to its arch rival Duster. And now, Jaguar also wants to the join the bandwagon with affordable sedans and SUVs. As customers and car enthusiasts know, Jaguar is famed for producing luxury cars in the Indian automotive market. However, seeing the drift towards affordable cars, the luxury car maker is going to invest a whooping $2.4 billion (around Rs. 15,312 crore) to come up with an affordable range of lightweight aluminium sports sedans and crossover SUVs. This whole new range is aimed to cater to the mass appeal in the market and is expected to create around 1,700 jobs in Britain.
As aforementioned above, the investment is geared towards the launch of new affordable models for mass market and as such, the company plans to introduce new models by 2015. Currently, Land Rover deals with low cost luxury vehicles, and with Jaguar imitating on the success of its sibling, the TATA group is hoping to record an increase in its overall market share. The long term goal is to enhance the existing position and compete with likes of BMW, Mercedes and Audi. Jaguar, an offshoot of the popular Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) group that is owned by Tata Motors, said that this investment is likely to create a further 24,000 supply chain jobs.
Currently, looking at the global market trend, car companies are taking a deep dive in 'crossover' car models. This simply means that efforts are to mate and combine functionalities of utility vehicles with the performance of luxury vehicles for creating crossover breed vehicles with a marked affordability. Customers seem to be going gaga for such hybrid car models and auto majors, consequently, are willing to tap this demand in order to increase their share in the market. Jaguar said that the investment is likely to be spent on design systems in order to introduce new one-piece "aluminium vehicle architecture". Ralf Speth, JLR's chief executive, commenting on the decision of company to go for such an investment, said, "The inherent flexibility of this all-new technology will enable Jaguar Land Rover to not only enter but aggressively compete in exciting new segments, creating new markets for both brands."
It must be noted that despite the depressed market for passenger car sales, the luxury car segment has done fairly well in the Indian automotive market. However, customers prefer low cost luxury car vehicles. Sensing this dynamically changing preference of domestic customers, auto companies like BMW, Mercedes and Audi have gone ahead with the introduction of affordable luxury cars. Recently, BMW had launched the much awaited BMW 1 Series. Mercedes had introduced A-Class and B-Class models while Audi has prevailed with Audi Q3 S. Now, Jaguar also intend to go ahead with affordable SUVs to increase its market share among the price sensitive domestic buyers.
