British automaker Jaguar Land Rover is aiming to double its market share in India by introducing more localised products that will be priced well.
Jaguar Land Rover has been competing in the luxury vehicle market since quite a long time but the company still hasn’t managed to generate sales as many as its rivals Mercedes, Audi and BMW do. The company was first importing all of its products and only recently did they start assembling CKD units of select cars. However, the automaker does seem to have very big plans for the Indian market and they are eyeing a market share of over 20% in the coming 3 years.
The current market share held by Jaguar Land Rover is close to 10% so the company seems optimistic in taking a 100% leap. The company wants to make its products more cost effective by increasing the amount of localisation that goes into them. However, this will take some time as stated by company officials. The carmaker feels that they will perform better in the market if they get more CKD products which will be priced lower than the CBU counterparts.
As of now, only the Discovery Sport, Evoque, XF and XJ are locally assembled at the company’s plant in Chikale, Pune. The company is all set to launch the new XE early next year and the C-Class competitor will be launched as a CBU initially and later on the automaker will begin its local assembly. The company’s sales also fell slightly after the Freelander got discontinued.
The Range Rover Evoque has been selling in decent numbers and the baby SUV was offered as a CBU since launch. Only recently did the company bring down its prices significantly by starting local assembly and bringing down CKD kits of the vehicle. The Evoque facelift was also launched just last week and this is expected to take sales higher. The Discover Sport is also a well-rounded package which has immense potential. It remains to be seen how the company prices the XE upon its arrival since it has rivals that are quite established in the market.
