Jaguar World Magazine X350 XJ Buyers Guide July 2010 Back Issue

If you’d happened to do a Google news
search for ‘Jaguar’ on 1 June, the day I’m
writing these words, the result would have
been a plethora of headlines about Jaguar
Land Rover’s intention to begin manufacture of
vehicles in China, yet many of the words written
were a tad misleading.
The impetus for the rash of stories was an
interview given by Carl-Peter Forster, Tata Motors’
CEO, to the BBC in which he indicated that JLR:
“…will need to manufacture at least two models in
China.” What seemed to get lost in some reports
was the clear message from Mr Forster that the
development of a manufacturing facility in China
(a market that saw 38 and 55 per cent increases,
respectively, in Jaguar and Land Rover sales last
year) would be in addition to, not replacing, UK
production. A pretty crucial fact that, and one that
means it’s a very good news story for Jaguar Land
Rover rather than a bad one. Incidentally, should the
plans come to fruition it wouldn’t be the fi rst time
that Jaguars have been built overseas – see Last
Word, page 129, for more.
Of course, the lever some writers chose to get
their negative spin stories rolling was the future
closure of either Land Rover’s Solihull, or Jaguar’s
Castle Bromwich plants at some point within
the next decade. Although this has already been
confi rmed some time ago, in his interview with the
BBC, Mr Forster confi rmed it again, but stressed:
“We are talking about having one effi cient operation
rather than two ineffi cient operations.” Given JLR’s
claim that when the change does come about
there will be no compulsory redundancies, it’s
clearly a move that makes sense. A decision on
which plant will survive will be forthcoming in the
next few months.
In a separate interview with Autocar,
Mr Forster also commented on new products in
development at Jaguar, namely the development
of a new ‘roadster’, and that consideration was
being given to the building of another small Jaguar.