Greatwall Motors may become JLR's Chinese partner

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover's (JLR) year-long hunt for a Chinese partner may finally end if its advanced talks with privately-owned Greatwall Motors, China's largest SUV producer fructify.

After holding inconclusive talks with state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industry Group (SAIC) and Chery Automobile Co, Hong Kong-listed Greatwall seems to has emerged the most acceptable for JLR since it is one of the few remaining Chinese carmakers that do not have a joint venture, according to a report today from China Car Times.

The added incentive is that Greatwall has just built a new, state of the art factory in Tianjin, which can produce about 800,000 cars annually at peak capacity – nearly double the 245,000 cars sold by JLR last year.

With naming the company, Ralf Speth, CEO of JLR told The Telegraph yesterday at the Frankfurt Motor Show that JLR is in "very intensive discussions" with a leading Chinese car maker and government officials for forming a joint venture to produce its luxury cars in China.

The JV is likely to be inked by this year end and regulatory clearance and other approvals from the government are expected by next year.

JLR had last year initiated talks with SAIC and Chery for first assembling Land Rover models and later for a joint production of both the Jaguar and Land Rover models.