Tata Motors’ luxury car units Jaguar Land Rover has clarified its thoughts on local assembly in the ASEAN region following local media reports in July.
It told reporters in Thailand it would consider setting up a local assembly plant if sales volumes rose to economic levels.
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A spokesperson for Jaguar Land Rover Thailand said domestic sales would need to reach 2,000-3,000 units per year for local assembly to be economical.
Local assembly would then help reduce import taxes and ultimately price the cars more competitively.
JLR is expanding sales rapidly in the country but from very low levels. The company expects volume to reach 500-600 units in 2015, up from 120 in 2014.
Exporting cars from Thailand to other south east Asia countries duty free under the ASEAN free trade agreement (AFTA) requires high levels of local content, however, much more than would be feasible for JLR to achieve in Thailand in the foreseeable future.
