Tata Motors’ Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) reportedly is talking to local governments in several southern states about setting up a factory in the US which would be a first for a British carmaker in the world’s second-largest vehicle market.
The Sunday Times said the states included South Carolina, home to BMW’s key plant which builds SUVs for sale worldwide.
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JLR normally keeps its plant plans close to its chest, making official announcements only after a deal is signed. Though it has confirmed it would build a plant in Brazil, it has still not said officially what it will build there.
Evoque production starts this week at a new US$1.78bn plant run by a joint venture between JLR and Chery Automobile, and based in Changsu, China. There were reports earlier this year JLR was also eyeing assembly in Saudi Arabia. The Freelander and some Jaguar models are assembled from KD kits shipped from England at a Tata plant in Pune, India.
The Sunday Times said JLR also would launch its i54 engine plant in Wolverhampton – a GBP500m investment – later this month.
It also is exploring three possible locations in Wales for a new logistics hub though it is also considering a site in the Midlands.
Selling directly into the US would allow JLR to avoid high import tariffs and smooth the impact of fluctuating currency rates.
The newspaper said JLR would probably receive significant start-up support from the chosen southern US state and could commit itself to building a factory that will eventually produce 200,000 cars a year.
The company has also been exploring the possibility of opening a factory in Mexico, the Sunday Times said.
JLR sold about 55,000 cars in North America last year, an eighth of its 425,000 global sales. Its target is to reach 1 million cars by the end of the decade.
According to just-auto data, the Range Rover Sport was JLR’s most popular model in the US in the first nine months of 2014 with 13,633 sales, up 24.1% year to date. Next was the Range Rover (9,092; +8.2%), followed by the Evoque (8,986; +10%). The XF was the most popular Jaguar (4,225; -27.8%).
Southern US state ‘transplants’ began with Honda’s motorcycle factory in Ohio which opened in 1979, Accord car producion followed in 1982 and Nissan and Toyota also opened plants in Tenessee and Kentucky, respectively, in the early 1980s. Daimler later opened its Mercedes plant in Alabama and BMW established its factory in South Carolina. More recent arrivals include a Hyundai plant in Alabama and a Kia factory in Georgia.
Most recently, there has been a spate of new investment in Mexican plants, including a second large Nissan plant, and investments by newcomers including Mazda and Audi.
