Tata Motors’ of India who owns luxury car manufacturer Jaguar and luxury SUV brand Land Rover is studying the feasibility of setting up a regional assembly plant in South-East Asia, according to reports in Thailand.
Sanpong Chuenroj, managing director of Jaguar Land Rover Thailand, told local reporters recently that a regional assembly plant could allow dealers to cut prices by 20-40%, potentially raising annual sales in South-East Asia from 3,000 to 5,000 units.
He added that Thailand and Malaysia were the front runners for the plant location. Thai distributor RMA group, which also has large scale vehicle modification operations for Ford and Land Rover in Chonburi, has proposed to become JLR’s regional assembler.
In Malaysia, local multi brand assembler Sime Darby already assembles the Land Rover Defender in limited volume for the local market and has the ability to take on the assembly of Jaguar cars at its plant.
