Jaguar Will Be in India

NEW DELHI: After completing the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford for 2.3 billion dollars, Tata Motors on Friday said it is exploring the possibility of bringing the two British marquees to India.

"Like Russia and China, JLR would be exploring the Indian market also. A team will be coming to India to study the market," Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant told analysts in a conference call.

He, however, said the company was not expecting big numbers from the two brands in India.

"As these are high priced products, we should not be putting big numbers. The market is developing and other high priced products like Mercedes and BMW are also doing well in India," Kant said

Asked if JLR would be adding additional capacity in view of new models XK, XF from Jaguar and other products from Land Rover being in the pipeline, and whether it plans to enter new markets, Jaguar Land Rover CEO David Smith replied in the negative.

"Our capacity has been realigned but we do not expect additional capacity requirement," he said.

Smith also said during the transition period, Ford Credit would continue to support vehicle and dealership financing. "But we are also working on the replacement plans."

On the imminent launch of Nano and the possibility of Tata looking to synergise JLR's distribution network in overseas market, Kant said: "Jaguar and Land Rover are premium products and Nano is at the other end of the spectrum. We have no plans to use JLR network."