Local assembly of Range Rover to halve waiting period for customers; increase capacity by 50%: CEO Rajan Amba

(From Right to Left) Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, JLR India MD Rajan Amba, Range Rover Global MD Geraldine Ingham

In a landmark move, Jaguar Land Rover India announced that it would be locally assembling its iconic Range Rover and Range Rover Sport at the brand’s plant in Pune. In a sit down interview with Moneycontrol, the brand’s CEO Rajan Amba said that with the move, Land Rover will be able to increase the order capacity for Range Rover by 50 per cent, in addition to shaving off Rs 56 lakh from the full-sized Range Rover and Rs 30 lakh from the Range Rover Sport. Without mentioning specific numbers, Amba said that the move will also aim to halve the total waiting period for these cars, which is currently estimated to be close to 9 months, according to Amba.

“We aren’t wholesaling. We will be supplying as per the bookings that we have. And we will still take some time to catch up to that, we have a year before we can expedite it.”

The move comes at a critical moment for both Land Rover and Jaguar, with the former entering the EV space next year, with the launch of the first Range Rover Electric. Manufacturers have, in recent times, expressed optimism about India’s EV market penetration in the luxury space, with Audi AG predicting market penetration of up to 50% by 2030. It’s a figure that Amba finds a tad optimistic. “I think 50 per cent may be a bit aggressive. I would say we can expect 35 per cent. Last year was a good year for EVs in the premium segment, where we saw a jump from 2 per cent to 6 per cent. This year will prove to be a watershed moment. If we can jump to 8 per cent or 9 per cent by the end of this year, then I think a more steady growth rate can be expected”

While Land Rover is finally dipping its toes in the EV space, Jaguar will go all electric by 2025, making it the first legacy car maker to make a full transition to EVs. The move comes at a time when other legacy carmakers are retrenching EV investments. Mercedes-Benz has extended its ICE manufacturing deadline to 2035, while Audi is set to launch a new set of ICE and hybrid powertrains by 2026. Jaguar however, is still rebuilding itself in a new image, one which is far from complete. Speaking of Jaguar’s prospects as an EV maker at a time where the EV landscape and hierarchy has changed so dramatically, Amba said “We are repositioning our brand so dramatically. There are new developments occurring in the battery space almost every week (Jaguar recently signed a deal Fortescue for advanced battery intelligence software). In a way, our (delayed) arrival in the market will be advantageous because we have had the time to develop the software, to provide batteries which will offer over 700 km in range, have supply chain issues ironed out, and of course, have someone like Gerry McGovern designing our cars”.

Where Jaguar has languished, attempting to rebrand itself under the “Reimagine” strategy, Land Rover has seen record sales for vehicles like the Defender, doubling the stock of Tata Motors in the past couple of years and helping the Indian carmaker surpass every other member of the Bloomberg World Auto Manufacturers Index, according to Bloomberg.

“80% of our bookings are for the Range Rover, the Range Rover Sport and the Defender” , says Amba. However, unlike Jaguar, Land Rover continues to remain powertrain agnostic with a plug-in hybrid version of the Range Rover on offer along with a BEV. However, Amba says that JLR won’t be adding a plug-in hybrid to its India fleet, even if the GST tax bracket is revised, as its hybrid mobility does not align with parent company Tata Motors’ stand on the future of mobility, which, for Tata, is resolutely electric. “For us it’s also about creating a luxury experience with retail and after sales as well. If you look at the luxury carmakers in the country, how many of them have a hybrid? The luxury segment is all about BEVs. The highest number of patents ever, in Jaguar Land Rover’s history have been recorded for the Range Rover BEV” says Amba.

For now the focus is on bringing-in the Range Rover Electric to the market by 2026 and maximising the resource that is Tata Power to gain an advantage over other luxury EV makers. “We work very closely with Tata Motors, which in-turn works very closely with Tata Power, so right now the plan is to piggyback on them for infrastructure and network. The BEV Range Rover is coming to India in 2026, so we have some time to develop a formula our showrooms, depending on the size locality, the expected investments from our partners to determining the number of fast charging installations in each showroom, which will play a big role in offering fast chargers” says Amba.