JLR’s first China factory caps carmaker’s resurgence
By Tom Mitchell and Andy Sharman
The opening of Jaguar Land Rover’s first China factory caps a five-year resurgence under Indian ownership that has made the Coventry-based company a byword for British manufacturing excellence and export prowess.
The new plant in Changshu, about a two-hour drive from Shanghai, marks a pivotal moment for JLR. The Tata unit needs a manufacturing presence in China to consolidate its position in the world’s largest car market – but also wants to assure its British workforce and the UK government that international expansion will not jeopardise jobs at home.
As part of that effort, JLR is boosting investment at its factories in Liverpool and the West Midlands and this month opens a new £500m engine plant in Wolverhampton – even as it plans to open another manufacturing facility in Brazil. Last week, JLR’s factory in Halewood, Merseyside began producing the new Land Rover Discovery Sport after a £200m investment that created 250 new manufacturing jobs and £3.5bn in supplier contracts.
The Changshu factory, a Rmb10.8bn ($1.8bn) joint venture with state-owned Chery Automobile that opened on Tuesday, will produce JLR’s less expensive Range Rover Evoque for the China market, where the company sells almost five SUVs for every one Jaguar saloon. On Tuesday, JLR said that it also intended to produce a Jaguar saloon model at the factory by 2016.
“The demand that’s here in China will far outstrip [Changshu’s] capacity so we have absolutely zero plans to export any cars whatsoever,” Bob Grace, JLR’s China head, said at this year’s Beijing Auto Show.
Mr Grace hosted UK trade unionists in China at the outset of JLR’s investment programme in an effort to allay their fears. “You can imagine the thoughts that go through their mind when you open a factory in China,” he said.
“When you look at the competitive situation it doesn’t take long to realise that you have to build the cars in China as part of our global aspirations to be a fairly significant player.”
Roger Maddison, at UK union Unite, was one of JLR’s guests and says the union accepts the logic of the Changshu investment but has concerns about the longer term trend it signals.
“Tata knows what differentiates JLR from other carmakers – it’s British,” says Pierluigi Bellini, an analyst at IHS Automotive. “If they start developing cars in, say, India, it’s going to be a different brand image?.?.?.?Developing it from scratch – blank white paper to the final design – it’s important to keep that in the home market.”
Jaguar Land Rover is attempting to gain traction in China with its flagship saloons as it seeks to break the stranglehold of its dominant German rivals in the world’s largest car market
