Shanghai November 9 (Gasgoo.com) Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is planning to build a new plant in China, its CEO Ralf Speth said recently. The plant, with an annul production capacity of 50,000 vehicles, is likely to be located in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi Province in southeastern China, huanqiu.com reported Tuesday, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.
JLR, the UK-based luxury vehicle business owned by India's Tata Motors, will start the project immediately once finding a suitable Chinese partner. With an investment of $162.1 million, the project is expected to produce 150,000 vehicles in three years, Speth said.
Tata Motors, as JLR's largest shareholder, has already hired Stefan Berger, an expert in Chinese joint ventures, to help achieve the agreement. A resource from JLR China told huanqiu.com that the country's huge consumption potential and relatively low production cost is the main reason for the Indian automaker's seeking local production.
GM China Public Relations Department said a specific timetable for the project has yet to be defined for the moment.
The new plant will probably assemble one Jaguar and one Land Rover models, with the auto parts and components still manufactured in UK. Tata Motors expects to sell around 20,000 Land Rover vehicles and 5,000 Jaguar vehicles in the Chinese market during 2010-2011, sources said.
In the business year ended March 2010, Tata Motors sold 208,197 JLR vehicles globally, with 8% of them delivered to Chinese consumers.
The automaker's Chief Operations Officer Carl-Peter Forster said China, now the fastest-growing auto market, is likely to surpass Britain to become Tata's second largest market in the world in 2011.
