Indian auto giant Tata Motors will assemble the luxury sports utility vehicle (SUV) of its British subsidiary Land Rover – the Freelander – in the Indian market. The car maker plans to produce over 2,000 units of Freelander per annum from its Chikhli plant near Pune The assembly operations of Freelander model will be followed by import of completely knocked down units from Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) in the UK.
According to a statement given by Tata Motors MD and CEO Carl Peter Foster, "There is immense potential in the market and after selling JLR in India for more than a year, we have decided to assemble our cars here. The local assembly will start later this year, where we will produce all available variants of the Freelander’.”
Mr. John Edwards, Land Rover's global brand director, said in a statement "While we are the fastest growing luxury brand in China, the local assembly in the Indian market would help the parent company to leverage its potential in the home market."
So far, Tata Motors has managed to sell more than 200 units of Land Rover vehicles in the Indian market and the Freelander 2 will be the first Land Rover model to hit the Indian market.
