Our Terms & Conditions | Our Privacy Policy
Tata Motors will have a key role to play in order to convince Jaguar Land Rover to reconsider manufacturing its next-gen luxury EVs in India.
India and the United Kingdom signed a historic free trade agreement (FTA) earlier this week marking an end to three years of rigorous negotiations. As part of this agreement, around 99 percent of goods built and exported from India into the UK will not be charged any import duty.
On the other hand, British goods imported into India, especially automotive, will also become significantly more affordable after reduction in tariff. A full-imported model brought via the Completely Built Unit (CBU) route is levied an import duty of 100 percent. Under the FTA, a fully-built car imported from the UK will now be levied only 10 percent.
The fact that no duties will be imposed on cars made in India should tempt British OEMs to set production in India. That said, intricate details about the provisions under the FTA still remain in the dark. It isn’t clear which car models in which price bracket will benefit from this agreement and by how much, and if there’s a provision for two-wheelers or not.
Jaguar I Pace (Image: Jaguar)
However, initial reactions are favourable and said to lure some well-known luxury car brands. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is on top of this list. Owned by the homegrown Tata Motors, JLR had been looking to manufacture its next generation EVs in India. However, a Reuters report published earlier in March this year, suggested JLR has put its India manufacturing plans on the backburner for now.
The prime reason for this was said to be JLR unable to find the right price-quality balance for locally sourced EV parts. Last year, JLR had announced that it will manufacture its luxury EVs in India at Tata Motors’ upcoming facility in Tamil Nadu worth USD 1 billion (approx. Rs 8,708.6 crore). Since January this year, work on the JLR locally manufactured EVs has been suspended.
Will JLR reconsider after India-UK FTA?
Express Drives tried to reach out to officials in Jaguar Land Rover India, but the company is yet to officially comment since intricate details about this agreement are yet to be ascertained.
However, if the proposed provisions are in favour, JLR will most likely revisit its plan to locally manufacture luxury EVs in India. The nill import tariff under the FTA will only boost the brand’s confidence in achieving cost parity and a profitable return on investment. What will also give impetus to JLR is parent company Tata Motors’ involvement in the project.
JLR had intended to produce approximately 70,000 electric vehicles annually at this facility, targeting both domestic and international markets. These EVs were to be built on the company’s Electrified Modular Architecture (EMA) platform. As a result, Tata’s premium Avinya lineup—also based on the EMA platform—has been put on hold.
The FTA will make Tata push JLR to reconsider its Indian manufacturing plans since the former had planned to produce 25,000 units of the Avinya EVs at its Tamil Nadu facility, which was also set to assemble non-EV vehicles starting in September. The plant was projected to reach full production capacity within 5 to 7 years.
*Note: This is a developing story awaiting more updates.*
Discover the latest in the auto world with new cars and new bikes, explore upcoming cars in India, and find your perfect match with cars under 5 lakh, 10 lakh or 15 lakh. Stay updated with the latest auto news and the rise of electric vehicles.
This article was first uploaded on May nine, twenty twenty-five, at twenty-four minutes past five in the evening.
Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.
Aggregated From –
Comments are closed.