India Range Rover Production Starting Soon

A rumor from a few weeks ago is now official news: JLR is starting full-scale production in India, building Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports for the local market.

The rumor and the official news differ slightly. The rumor said that the Range Rovers would be produced at a Tata-owned factory in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and there was some suggestion they would focus on cheaper models, as they had done in the past. Instead, the vehicles will be built in an existing Tata  factory in Pune, in the western state of Maharashtra. The Pune factory has been building knock-down kit Land Rovers since 2011, previously focusing on smaller vehicles in the lineup. The first Indian-assembled vehicle was the Freelander 2 (known as an LR2 in North America), followed by various models of Range Rover Evoque, Discovery Sport, and Range Rover Velar, as well as the Jaguar F-Pace.

The Range Rover is already marketed on Land Rover's Indian website as "Designed in the UK and Built in India," suggesting this will be a major marketing coup for the local market. Range Rover sales have grown by 160% in India in the past year, powered by the country's growing wealth. Producing locally makes them easier to buy, cheaper, and faster to get to market.

High-end variants, including the upcoming Range Rover Electric EV, will continue to be produced in the UK at the Solihull plant. The high-end SV vehicles will continue to be British-built, and India will soon get a special SV variant. (To be clarified -- is that one of the ultra-limited location-based editions that have been common lately, or will there be something else in higher volume?)

Range Rovers in India remain expensive, even though these new vehicles do not suffer from import tariffs like the previous British-built vehicles. The flagship Range Rover starts at 23,600,000 rupees, or $284,000, and is only sold in the five-seater long-wheelbase variant with luxury rear seating. (Compare that to the base price for this version in the United States of $170,900.) Looking at the Indian online configurator, that gets you a Range Rover HSE with a diesel mild hybrid engine, one of four colors (Fuji White, Santorini Black, Eiger Grey, or Batumi Gold), a single 21" wheel option, and one of three interior colors. Range Rover Autobiography comes with the P400 mild hybrid gasoline motor, which is familiar to North American buyers. It comes with 22" wheels and the same interior options.

While the pricing seems steep, removing tariffs still makes them far more inexpensive than the vehicles were before. The first flagship Range Rover built outside of Britain is a huge shift for the company. It's the first time in over half a century that the iconic vehicle has been built outside of the Lode Lane factory in Solihull. But with the changes in the global market, and the potential for growth in India, it makes total sense. The Range Rover only has room to grow as a status symbol in the exciting growth of wealth and success of India.