Jaguar Land Rover to start production in India

The iconic Land Rovers will now be built in India for the first time, though as assembled units with parts shipped in kit form to the sub-continent from the UK. The Jaguar Land Rover arm of Tata Motors will produce Complete Knockdown (CKD) Land Rover kits for onward shipment to India.

Parts will be manufactured at Jaguar Land Rover's factory at Halewood on Merseyside before being shipped to the Tata facility in Pune for assembly.

Full details of the assembly plan will be revealed at the Geneva Motor Show this week. The move to assemble the iconic vehicles in India should provide JLR greater access to one of the world's fastest emerging car markets.

With CKD assembly in India the JLR brand will now be produced on the Indian sub-continent just three years after Tata bought the premium vehicle maker from Ford for $2.3 billion.

It is expected that the initial JLR production volume will be 2000 units a year.

The company is likely to commence production with the Land Rover Freelander 4x4, but is says other Land Rover and Jaguar models are set to follow. Production of the Freelander should start within weeks.