Jaguar Land Rover targets India as key market

Jaguar Land Rover is setting its sights on expanding into India, following its acquisition by Tata Motors in June. The West Midlands company currently has just one distributor in the sub-continent that sells about 70 Range Rovers a year. However, chief executive David Smith said that was about to change.

Mr Smith said India could join the growing list of developing markets that are helping to insulate the two brands from downturns in traditional markets such as the UK, the USA and mainland Europe. However, he warned that business is going to get “a lot tougher” over the next six months, as the economic downturn hits luxury car sales in the western economies.

Production levels may be cut at the company’s three assembly plants to prevent stocks building up, but no decision will be taken until next month. “We have to be realistic and accept that the next six months will be really tough, as the ‘credit crunch’ affects the ability of customers to finance new cars; we may have to adjust production. The last thing we want is inventory building up,” Mr Smith said.

Jaguar has not sold cars in India for a number of years, but the brand used to be well known there. Tata group chairman Ratan Tata’s father owned one of the first XK120s to come on the market 60 years ago. “Since June, we have been working on getting into the Indian market more quickly,” Mr Smith said.

“I think it will be a while before that market is as large as China or Russia for premium vehicles, but there is opportunity to sell more than we are at the moment. We are looking at establishing some new dealer points in the key cities and getting the service and after-sales in place to make sure we can properly service customers. Then, I think we can start accelerating sales.”