Jaguar Land Rover is oiling its operational wheels in a bid to challenge the dominance of German carmakers Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW in Indian luxury car market. The Tata Motors-owned auto company will launch at least 10 new products, including upgrades, in FY18.
At least three new models — including Velar, Discovery — and additional variants of existing models will make it to the line up for JLR this year. While Jaguar XE diesel will be launched by end of April, Velar and Discovery models will be launched in the second half of the year.
“We have lined up more than 10 product actions this year. This will include more than two absolutely new products also,” Rohit Suri, Managing Director and President of Jaguar Land Rover India, told Moneycontrol.
The drive to claim a bigger share in luxury car market comes on the back of an encouraging sales response in FY17 fueled by buyer appetite. While Jaguar Land Rover India declined to share sales data, sources said the company clocked "high single-digit" volume growth in the year.
In 2016, market leader Mercedes-Benz witnessed a drop in sale for the first time in more than five years. JLR has about 10 percent share of the 33,000 units a year of India’s domestic luxury car market.
JLR is also exploring options to make space for more locally-produced models at its plant based near Pune to drive down costs and make products more affordable. All the three German carmakers — Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi — have assembly operations in India and even buy locally-assembled engines from an Indian manufacturer.
“We are making five models here in India, XE, XF, XJ, Range Rover Evoque and the Land Rover Discovery Sport. We are continuously looking at adding more products at the plant and if it makes business sense in terms of volumes. There is an active consideration for that but it takes time,” added Suri.
The new models will incur additional investments but the company is yet to finalise on it, Suri said. “There is always a product investment involved whenever there is an addition. We have not yet finalised on the investment yet,” added Suri.
JLR has 24 outlets across India and the company plans to add 2-3 outlets in FY18, Suri said. These outlets cover 95 percent of the total target market for JLR considering that it does not have products in the compact space like the Mercedes A Class, BMW 1 Series or the Audi A3.
