We'll permit ourselves a small 'told you so' this week after Jaguar Land Rover finally confirmed it would build the Range Rover Evoque in Brazil from early 2016, as well as the previously confirmed Land Rover Discovery Sport – which Our Man in Brazil first reported last May. JLR had said earlier it would only do 'new' models at the plant, but our sources said otherwise, and it makes sense to do the country's top selling JLR model locally as it (a) gets the price down, increases supply and frees up capacity at the Halewood, England, mother ship. And the high local content encouraged in Brazil allows local variation to suit market needs. JLR also now makes the Evoque at a joint venture in China (again, this gets the price down in a tax-protected market) and also assembles some models in India (ditto). All of which frees up UK capacity.
Another British automaker eyeing a new factory is Aston Martin and, as we learned this week, it won't necessarily be in the UK.
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A trade deal involving the US, Japan and 10 other Pacific rim countries has been agreed. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will reduce trade barriers between the nations involved and the agreement follows years of wrangling over arrangements for specific industrial sectors, such as automotive, so Dave Leggett put the outline of the deal under his economist's microscope.
We also learned about Fiat's plans for the C-segment with a whole new range of cars being readied for market. This will be just the latest Turkish made model line to be shipped to Europe; we already get some small Hyundai models, Toyotas and Ford Transits from there, amongst others.
As vehicle makers and suppliers bring more Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to the market, drivers are experiencing new technologies that will fundamentally reshape the driving experience over the next 10 years, according to just-auto's research unit, QUBE.
And Volkswagen's 'emissionsgate' continued to rumble on – among our stories this week was news of the new supervisory board chairman. The stop-sale order issued for the Polo in India was not, however, connected with diesels.
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By GlobalDataHave a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
