Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover launched the armoured range of its Range Rover and Discovery sports utility vehicles, with indicative prices of Rs. 4.75 crore and Rs. 3.75 crore in India.
The company is also looking at launching the armoured version of Jaguar XJ sedan, which could be priced around Rs. 5.5 crore.
Depending on the customisation levels, the price of the vehicles could vary but the Range Rover and Discovery sports utility vehicles will have indicative prices of Rs. 4.75 crore and Rs. 3.75 crore respectively.
“The armoured vehicles market is a very niche segment and we don’t want to leave it out. We are launching these vehicles in India so that we have the complete range of offering here,” Tata Motors Head, Premier Car Division Rohit Suri said.
Globally, the armoured vehicles market is estimated to be around 15,000 units annually but in India it is at a very nascent stage.
Tata Motors and JLR are currently working on assembling some products from Land Rover in India in order to meet demands in India. However more details are not available on this front but we are certain the Freelander will be the first to be made and could be followed by Evoque in 2011.
JLR had sold 242 units last fiscal and this year it is doing “several times better”. As compared to Mercedes, BMW and Audi these are very small numbers, but certainly with the company will target higher numbers when they bring in more models and version from the JLR stable.
JLR is on a network expansion drive with plans to have about 8-9 dealers in India by the end of this fiscal from the current four. “The company will set up dealers in Bangalore, Chennai Kochi , Kokata and will be adding one dealership in Ludhiana soon.
Source: ET
