British luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover has launched armoured SUVs in India. First, it has launched armoured variants of Range Rover and Discovery models and soon intends to introduce the armoured version of Jaguar Sentinel XJ as well. The models are priced at Rs. 4.74 crores and Rs. 3.75 crores respectively. Jaguar Sentinel XJ was recently shown at the 2010 Moscow Auto Show and will be soon launched in India with an expected price of Rs. 5 crores.
"The armoured vehicles market is a very niche segment and we don't want to leave it out. We are launching these vehicles in India so that we have the complete range of offerings here," said Rohit Suri, head of Tata Motors' Premier Car Division. The global market for armoured is around 15,000 units annually but in India as well as in Russia it is at a very nascent stage. JLR sold 242 armoured versions of its new cars last year in spite of the recession. "We have just started exploring the market, we know there is some potential but it will be too premature to put a number on how many armoured vehicles we intend to sell in India," Suri said.
JLR is currently expanding its presence in India and will have 8-9 dealers in the country including cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi and Kolkata.
