JLR coming to India, says Tata Motors

More than a year after Tata Motors took control of two of UK's most iconic luxury marques - Jaguar and Land Rover - the company has finally chalked out plans for launching these cars in India.

Jaguar Land Rover on Friday reached an agreement with Tata Motors to begin selling its range of premium performance saloon cars, including Jaguar's XF and XKR and Land Rover's sports utility vehicles Discovery and Range Rover, in the Indian market later this year.

Tata Motors will be the exclusive importer for the two brands. Its newly-formed premier car division will operate under the passenger car business unit of Tata Motors and will assume responsibility for the cars. The unit will be headed by Rohit Suri.

David Smith, chief executive officer, Jaguar Land Rover, said in a statement, "We are delighted to be formally entering  the Indian market, an economy which is still growing appreciably, and able to offer our premium products to a whole new group of customers. It is an important strategic move for Jaguar Land Rover and will enable us to realise our competitive potential in this significant market."

The move may seem strange to some, considering that Tata Motors is seeking massive UK funds to sustain its purchase of the two companies. But, in this respect, it is no different from the rest of the luxury and executive car industry – it is suffering from the credit crunch squeezing potential buyers.

A particular problem for Jaguar, however, is bad timing. The cars it has been designing and building over the past few years are all capable of meeting or outdoing rival products, and the launch early last year of the XF saw total Jaguar sales up nearly 9 per cent for 2008. But this upturn followed years of heavy losses and arrived just as the market crashed.