Despite high interest rates and slowing economic growth there is no stopping the sale of premium cars in India.

Tata Motors, owner of the recently acquired Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) brands, is looking at the possibility of marketing the cars in India and is believed to be looking to set up its dealership network here.

According to media reports the sales and marketing department of Tata Motors has helped facilitate a visit by the senior Jaguar and Land Rover  pesonnel to scan Indian dealerships and prepare a marketing plan.

The year 2008 is ending on a sour note for the Tatas. The company completed the purchase of JLR from Ford in June this year. The period coincided sadly with the setting in of a global economic recession.

For nearly all car companies across the world at present, the US, UK and European auto markets have melted and sales of autos are at an all-time low. Leaving aside the Detroit automakers, which are anyway almost bankrupt, even Japanese carmakers like Honda and Toyota, which sold decent numbers when oils costs soared, are shutting plants across countries to lower inventory carrying costs.

JLR's biggest markets incidentally were US and UK last year.

This year, however, the story is somewhat different. In the first 10 months of 2008 Land Rover's US sales fell by 37 per cent to 25,377 compared to the same period in 2007. Jaguar's sales in the same period helped by the new XF sedan were not as badly hit but its sales still fell 3.6 per cent to 12,575.

At the same time while Jaguar's UK sales rose 11 per cent against last year's same period, Land Rover's sales fell almost 27 per cent to 30,241 units.

Not surprisingly then like GM, Ford Motor, Mercedes and BMW suffering the downturn in the West, China, Russia and India seem bright spots for JLR also.

When David Smith took over as CEO of JLR in June this year he told the British press that he was looking at Russia and India to boost sales.

Smith, a Ford Motor Company veteran said Tata Motors aimed to provide ''dedicated showrooms'' for JLR rather than selling them from Tata's existing network in India. He said, ''Tata bought the companies because they believed that these two brands have a lot of growth potential in terms of revenue and sales.''

Tata's confidence in JLR may not be misplaced. This year in Russia, Land Rover has turned out to the leading premium brand. Its sales grew 79 percent to 17,439 in the first 10 months of 2008 while Jaguar saw a more than 60 per cent growth to 1,423 units. Now JLR is targeting to sell 20,000 cars in Russia in the medium term.

Tata expects China to be Land Rover's No. 5 market this year and Jaguar's seventh largest, while Russia likely to be Land Rover's No. 3 and Jaguar's No 2 market.

In India, rising incomes and a young population are combining to fuel demand for luxury cars, but sales here are still behind those in China and Russia.

JLR's immediate priority is to set up a distribution network in India for both brands and the company feels that it can sell 2,000 to 3,000 units here to come on level with other premium brands such as BMW and Mercedes within two to three years.

The luxury car market in India, for cars priced above Rs20 lakh ($45,000), had sales of 3,500 units last year, and is expected to jump nearly 80 per cent to 6,200 units this year, according to JD Power & Associates.

According to JD Power's estimates India's luxury car market is likely to overtake Singapore's sales of about 10,000 units a year, edge past Thailand and level with Malaysia this year.

Not surprisingly then JLR sees a major future in India and aims to improve sales opening small dealerships in the major cities in the country, just like it did in Russia.

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