By the end of 2010, the Jaguar Land Rover division of the Tata Motors will begin assembly of the Land Rover Freelander for release to local Indian markets by middle of 2011. Buoyed by excellent sales performance of its Jaguar Land Rover division, the move aims to further to strengthen its Jaguar Land Rover business. For all your Land Rover repairs there are many great places to look online.

Retooling a Local Factory for Freelander Assembly

Tata Motors will be assembling the Freelanders at the Pimpri car manufacturing facility near Pune. It is currently being retrofitted for the Land Rover assembly machineries. It was earlier used by Mercedes Benz for some of its cars but have since shifted to its Chakan factory in Pune. McDonald Land Rover is a fantastic place to find cheap Land Rover engines for your Land Rover.

According to industry pundits, Tata Motors will have its trial assembly run starting this December after having invested about Rs1.5 billion to have the Pimpri plant retooled for the Land Rover Freelander assembly. The site is expected to assemble 20 Freelanders per month but based on excess capacity, Tata Motors have plans to use the facility to assemble other Jaguar Land Rover vehicles.

More Profits for Tata

This is a pioneering effort for Tata Motors as the Pimpri plant will be its first local car assembly for the Jaguar Land Rover marque outside of the UK. Industry observers see the move to locally assemble the Freelander as a first step to improving the company’s profit margins with lower production cost without reducing its local car prices. But Tata Motors has yet to disclose any plan to market the locally assembly Freelander to world markets.

Tata Motors is eying China as another option for relocating its UK assembly plants, considering that the growing affluence of Chinese middle class has likewise seen much growth in the sales of its JLR luxury vehicles there.

Freelander is currently priced at Rs. 346,900 in Mumbai where its Mumbai JLR outlet has sold 242 land Rover cars in the 2009-2010 period. The marque competes against the like of the BMW X3 and the Audi Q5 in both domestic and international SUV luxury markets.

The Jaguar Land Rover division has bee a sore thumb to the Tata Group since acquiring it from the ailing Ford Motors back in 2008. But its amazing turnaround over the last 12 months has made it into a darling acquisition that has increased Tata Motors share prices in the local stock markets.