Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is increasingly looking at India for sourcing a large number of components for its iconic brands.
It intends to invest a significant amount in research and development (R&D) centres in the country.
The UK-based subsidiary of the Tatas is also keeping its options open for using its India assembly plants for manufacturing cars that can be exported to other countries.
"We are going to invest in an research and development (R&D) department to source more components from India," said JLR Chief Executive Officer Ralph Speth, while officially inaugurating the company's first assembly plant in Pune.
It is also the company's first full-fledged facility outside the UK. India could be a sourcing base not just for local products but also global ones, he added.
According to a company statement, the Pune plant will assemble Land Rover Freelander 2 vehicles supplied in completely knocked down (CKD) form from JLR's Halewood manufacturing plant in Liverpool, UK.
The Freelander 2 will be available in India in two variants - TD4 SE Automatic and SD4 HSE Automatic - with prices starting from Rs 33.89 lakh (ex-showroom and pre-octroi price, Mumbai).
While reiterating its India plans on the occasion, JLR said currently around 500 employees were working for the company and the number would be ramped up.
"We will create hundreds of jobs in India. We will look at leveraging opportunities in communications, interface, human resources, information technology and many others," said Speth.
For the financial year ended March 31, JLR reported a net revenue of 9.9 billion pound and profit after tax of 1.04 billion pound.
Incidentally, the engine for the JLR brands will be delivered from the UK in a part configuration form.
Company officials clarified that manufacturing the car in India would remain more expensive than other countries "until critical numbers are achieved".
The officials also refused to divulge details related to the installed capacity of the plant. "We will start carefully and then ramp up carefully. Depending on the success, we can look at manufacturing products that are sold outside India," said Speth when asked about the capacity of the plant which is situated next to that of Indica, a small car from the Tata Motors stable.
Speth, however, said he expected the Indian market to "explode". The company has also moved two managers from its UK plants to India to keep an eye on quality control.
JLR sold 891 units in 2010-11 and plans to increase its presence in the main metropolitan cities.
"By September, we will be present in 12 major metropolitan cities with 14 dealer outlets," said Rohit Suri, head (premier car division), Tata Motors.
