JLR to assemble XF 2.2-litre diesel saloon locally
Tata Motors' Britain-based luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is planning to start assembling its new Jaguar XF 2.2-litre diesel saloon in India.
The auto giant is already selling the Jaguar XF 3-litre diesel saloon in the Indian market, but it comes as a completely imported unit. While the Jaguar XF 3-litre diesel saloon costs around Rs 51 lakh, Jaguar XF 2.2-litre will cost around Rs 44.5 lakh.
The Jaguar XF 2.2-litre diesel saloon is the second Jaguar car the manufacturer will be assembling in India, after Freelander 2.
Rohit Suri, vice-president at premier car division of JLR, said that they decided to come with another variant of XF as it is one of the company's highest selling cars in India.
Speaking on the topic, Suri said, "It was doing very well with the 3-litre diesel engine at that price, so we decided to give customers a wider choice. This will attract more customers and make it more available."
The manufacturer has already established an assembly plant at its Pune manufacturing facility for the new Jaguar XF. However, it didn't reveal the capacity of the new assembly plant or the investments thereon.
Separately, the company also issued a warning that its JLR unit would likely report lower-than-expected EBTIDA margin in the October to December quarter. According to the statement issued by the company, the lower EBTIDA margins would come because of foreign exchange fluctuations and a higher blend of Evoque sales.
The statement discouraged investors. In opening trade on Thursday, the stock slipped 8.2 per cent to Rs 287.2 a share.
