Indian Autos blog

This Monday British automaker Land Rover announced that its baby SUV Freelander has completed 250,000 units in manufacturing, a feat achieved only in its 4th year of mass production. The 250,000th model is 2.2l TD4 Diesel GS, painted in Fuji White, and will be shipped to its owner in Scotland. Richard Else, Halewood operations director- This milestone achievement and the increasing sales for Freelander 2 highlights just how important this  [ Read More ]

Tata could soon begin assembling Land Rover’s compact SUV, the Freelander in India. The compact crossover SUV, Freelander could be assembled in India at Tata’s now idle Pimpri facility which was assembling Mercedes Benz cars in the past. The facility has been idle since Mercedes Benz shifted to its own plant at Chankan, Pune.

A Tata Motors Official was quoted saying-

Trial production will begin by December. At this point, it’s not clear whether JLR will use the factory to address markets outside India.

Tata would begin trial production by the end of the year and would be rolling out Land Rover Freelanders from this factory by mid-2011. Tata has reportedly earmarked 150 crore Rupees to begin the Frelander’s assembly. The company is looking to assemble about 20 Land Rover Freelanders a month.

The Land Rover Freelander which come as a CBU attracting 110% excise duty, is now priced at Rs. 34.7 lakhs (on-road Mumbai) for its base variant is a direct rival to the BMW X3 and Audi Q5. Land Rover sold around 242 cars between 2009-10.

If Tata can assemble the CKDs in India, the cost of the base variant can be brought down to Rs. 23.5 lakhs (CKDs attaract only 40% excise duty), the Freelander would be in the soon-to-be launched X1 territory and with diesel engines, the premium compact SUV could do some very brisk sales. The possibility of a Land Rover Freelander at the price of a Honda CR-V would be very very exciting.

If there is one category of market in India that’s getting hotter by the day, it has to be the SUV market. After countless new SUVs this year (new Scorpio, Land Rovers, Toyota Fortuner, new Ford Endeavour) and many more to come (Hyundai Santa Fe, PAL’s SUV, Skoda Yeti, revamped Safari) a new Land Rover is getting ready to meet the Indian lensman (read Ritesh Madhok) on the 22nd of this month.

The lifestyle 4WD SUV manufactured in Britain, like every other Land Rover, arrives in India via the CBU route (means it will attract 100-odd percent duty). What sets it apart from many other SUVs is its construction – it is built around a monocoque frame like a hatchback or a sedan.

The Freelander shares its platform with the Ford Mondeo, which is speculated as another car in the pipline that leads to India.

Details on its pricing is not available, but it is widely speculated that it will be priced at Rs. 35 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai).

We’ll be there to bring you exclusive images. So tune in on the 22nd for more details.